Bonds of the Past
by PepperonyOwl
Summary: With the death of the man that should have rightfully been her husband, Akane's world fell apart. She had to live her life without the man she loved and years passed. So what the blazes is she doing suddenly being back in her bedroom looking like a 16 year old? Can anyone change the past or are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again? Are happy endings a myth?
1. Prologue

This fanfic is dedicated to all the people who voted for this fanfic in my other story and to my beta reader, **pursemonger**. If you aren't already – go read her fanfics too, they're brilliant! And to all the people who wanted an Akane-travels-into-the-past fanfic!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything – characters, money, setting etc. Everything belongs to the author and whichever other companies have bought rights to it. Oh yeah, and I don't get any money writing this either. This Disclaimer is applicable to all chapters of this fanfic – however many there may be.

**WARNING: **Strong language (i.e. swearing), steamy, hot love scenes (though nothing too explicit) and MAIN Character death in the first chapter (though this will be the only character death in the entire story since Akane will be travelling into the past, so technically he's back to being alive). Those who have read some of my other stories will probably already know this, but I can't help the slight melodrama – especially in this chapter. The first one will probably (hopefully) be a tearjerker. Enjoy – if you are too young, too emotionally unstable or whatever – hit the back button.

This Prologue chapter is especially long – nearly 12k. Apologies, I couldn't reasonably shorten it without leaving important information out. And an inaccuracy has been pointed out to me – apologies for the Dragon's Whisker. Thanks to Compucles I now know that it was replaced by normal hair ties after that particular arc, so my apologies for the inaccuracy in the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane stopped in the middle of one of the more intricate katas Ranma had taught her, sensing that someone had just entered the Dojo. She also knew precisely who it was and why he was here – she'd been deliberately teasing him, knowing he'd follow her here.

"What, you're not gonna give your fiancé a proper goodbye?" A male voice called out from behind her.

With a smirk on her lips she whirled around, looking at the black haired man casually leaning against the wall of the Dojo in front of her. She stepped closer to him.

"Thought I did – I waved and everything."

Ranma easily answered her smirk with his own, his hand tightening around the sash on her gi to pull her closer. When his hot breath was mingling with her own, his eyes dark with both passion and amusement as he looked down at her, he finally spoke up.

"That's not what I'd call a proper goodbye. I'll be gone for an entire weekend, you know. Hurts my ego if you don't show me how much you'll miss me."

The blue haired girl in his arms threw her head back, laughing. It took her a few moments before she calmed down, eyes sparkling as her arms went behind his neck.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?"

Her lips met his and she pressed herself against him, swallowing up his moan as her hands pulled him firmly against her. It only took a moment before he responded in kind, lips and tongue teasing her even as his body twisted them until she was the one pressed against the wall. Moments later her legs closed around his waist and she could feel an answering moan build up inside her. Ranma's hand gripped her hair tightly while his other slowly went beneath her top, roaming across the soft, silky skin on her stomach first. Moments later he adjusted and ran his hand towards her back, feeling his ticklish fiancée quiver beneath his hands. The new position allowed Ranma to press her tantalizingly closer, feeling her soft curves press against the hard planes of his body always only made him want more.

Separating her mouth from his with a gasp for air, she wasn't surprised when Ranma gently tilted her head, mouth already gently nibbling and tasting her neck, forcing a different kind of gasp from her lips. Her own hands impatiently fiddled with the buttons that kept her from exploring his broad chest - before giving in and applying strength to rip his shirt open.

Ranma chuckled slightly against her neck, sending another shiver down her spine before her own hands made contact with his heated, muscular skin.

"You're so impatient..." her fiancé muttered before reclaiming her lips.

"Still don't – ah- know why you won't," another moan from her "take me with you on your training trip."

Laughing slightly, Ranma took his hands out from underneath her top, ignoring Akane's pout at the loss of contact. Leaning his forehead against hers, he tried to regain control over himself.

"Cause I think we both know I'd never get any training done."

Her hips rolled against his own, her eyes dark with passion as her tongue slowly wet her lips, Ranma's eyes heavy on her even as he suppressed the urge to push his hips against hers. He could feel the heat from her core against him, trying to rob him of any coherent thoughts. Her voice was husky and her reply nearly made him reconsider his decision to stay his hand.

"And who said that was a bad thing...?"

Groaning, he buried his face in her neck, tightening his grip on her body to stop his hands from wandering.

"You're a little minx, you know that? I'm not sure my self-control can hold until next week even with both your sisters and your dad in the same house! Never mind us both alone together on a training trip..."

Akane's smile was impish and she looked up at him through half lidded eyes.

"Whose idea was it any way to wait until the wedding night?"

Blue eyes darkened and his hands trembled slightly before Ranma forcefully separated himself from his fiancée.

"God, I don't think you know what you do to me, 'kane. ... But there's only a week left... Only one excruciatingly long week."

His eyes met hers hesitantly, watching as she straightened her clothing and tried to make her hair fall back into place. Her cheeks were still delightfully flushed, brown eyes still dark with the remnants of passion and her lips bruised and red. Ripping his eyes away before they could stray lower and make out the obvious signs of her arousal, he swallowed heavily.

He had never been so tempted before, never felt so attracted to someone in his entire life as his fiancée. Over the years the words pervert had never crossed her lips again and their physical boundaries disappeared, one by one, until there was nothing but honour and strength of will separating them from taking that last step and joining their bodies. He knew the wait would be worth it but somehow it seemed to prolong the agony and with only a week to go it was almost unbearable. Her mere smell was intoxicating to him and all he ever wanted to do was spend all day kissing his fiancée – and it wouldn't be the first time he'd succumbed to that particular desire, though he'd never thought he could strain the muscles in his mouth quite that much.

They had already spent hours exploring their love physically - mapping each other's body, seeing what made the other moan breathlessly and what made them scream in passion. Instead of soothing their inner fire, however, it seemed to have only inflamed them further.

The blue haired woman smiled at him warmly.

"You still haven't told me why you're taking the training trip in the first place. What sort of training are you planning to do within only two days?"

Ranma rolled his eyes.

"It's just an excuse. Mom and Pop are driving me nuts. Pop keeps giving me hints about how to pleasure a woman and mom... well, her idea of a man among men and his role in the bedroom are... let's say a little twisted." He shuddered. "Actually, more like frightening. I can't hear another word from her about what we really should try – if not for you I think I'd be scared to death of sex in general."

Akane laughed gaily. She was well aware of Nodoka's sometimes rather... odd view on things and on what made a man 'manly'.

"Do you remember when she sent you to spy on me in the bathroom?"

Grinning mischievously, Ranma sent her a heated glance.

"'Course... I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in my life."

His fiancée looked up at him coyly, lips quirked into a gentle smile.

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. You know I love you right?"

With one step she was in his personal space, eyes on his and when their lips were only separated by a hair's breadth, she whispered.

"I love you too, Ranma. You're my everything. And you'll be back soon, right?"

"I'll always come back for you, tomboy."

Closing the gap between them both lost themselves to each other, kissing gently and softly, conveying the love they held for each other.

"YUCK!"

"Get a room!"

"HEY! Leave Akane sensei alone!"

With a chuckle the couple separated at the childish voices interrupting them.

"Sorry, Ranma, I forgot I had a class to teach."

"'s okay. I need to get going anyway before my parents find me for another lecture."

"Love you..."

"Love you too. I'll see you Sunday night."

With another chaste kiss on her lips, Ranma jumped off into the distance. Akane in the meanwhile turned back to her students – a beginner's class with mainly six-year old children.

Smiling softly at the kids she explained the rules of the latest game she'd come up with to teach the kids martial arts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane laughed openly, tense shoulders finally relaxed as she sat in the ice cream cafe with her two best friends. Sayuri and Yuka – two girls she had first met in high school and even now that they were 22 years old they were still the best of friends.

"I can't believe you'd allow me to design your wedding dress, Akane-chan."

Sayuri was looking at her with something akin to hero worship, to Akane's embarrassment. Yuka merely laughed, elbowing their friend none-too-gently in her ribs.

"Yes, we know." Rolling her eyes, she turned back to Akane. "She hasn't shut up about this for the last month 'Akane's my hero' and 'poor starting out fashion designer like me' and then 'ooh, she's the best and I'll be famous'. God! Get a grip, girl. And you'd better have more than just a design ready at this stage in the game. Akane's wedding is on Saturday – she's got to look so amazingly, stunningly beautiful that Ranma's eyes will pop out of his head!"

Akane giggled helplessly at her friends' antics. Sayuri turned her nose up at her friend in pretend disgust.

"I'll have you know that you will be wearing a neon green-yellow polka-dotted, frilly dress as bridesmaid, Yuka." A moment later her smirk turned into a smile and her eyes started sparkling.

"But yes – Akane's wedding dress will forever be my masterpiece. And it should be ready tomorrow for one final fitting before the wedding! She will look so beautiful Ranma will fall unconscious the moment he sees her!"

Yuka laughed.

"Dolt, he needs to be awake for the wedding!" She wriggled her eyebrows at their friend. "Especially the wedding night – you really don't want him unconscious then."

Wiping away tears of laughter, Akane looked at her two friends in gratitude.

"Thank you both. This wedding-business has me so high strung and you won't believe how difficult it is to keep daddy and Mr. Saotome from interfering all the time. And then Ranma's not returned from his training trip yet even though he should've been back last night and I keep getting this ominous feeling and…"

"Hey, deep breaths."

Yuka's hand was warm on her shoulder and gave Akane that precious moment to compose herself. The feeling was back with a vengeance, that something was horribly wrong with her or Ranma. She couldn't place it. Kodachi had left Japan and was living in France, Ukyo gave up on Ranma over a year ago and even Shampoo and the old ghoul had left on Friday, just a week before their wedding. For once, Nerima chaos appeared to have abated in time to allow them to actually get married.

Ranma had trained her for years so now she was actually a match for him – that is to say he still beat her but now he actually had to work for it and every once in a while she'd actually manage to defeat him – though usually by a more liberal use of the 'Anything Goes' part of her training. Akane had gone to college and after a year of travelling with Ranma they had settled down, obtained their masteries and actually brought back students to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

Ranma and her had officially started dating when Akane was nineteen. After two years and Ranma on his knees with a ring in his hands they had been for the first time – in their opinions - 'officially' engaged. The engagement had finally forced Ukyo to understand that Ranma would never reciprocate the feelings she had for him and after a short series of challenges, fights and arguments all three were good friends.

And now hers and Ranma's wedding was only five days away. Five short days. Ranma had told her he'd like to go on one final training trip the weekend before – alone – and she'd agreed. He should have returned Sunday night but now it was Monday afternoon and he still wasn't back. Something in Akane's stomach kept twisting and turning as if something big was about to happen – as if there was a fight she was missing out on. The same way she'd felt when Ranma was in China fighting Saffron – though then at least she'd known what was happening.

Dismissing it as wedding anxieties, Akane straightened up and smiled at her two friends.

"Sorry about that. Chaos always seems to happen around Ranma so I can't help but expect the worst at all times, I guess."

"Oh believe me, we know. I remember in school there was always something going on between you two. It was rather interesting to watch, though some moments were really scary and others just hilariously outrageous. I mean, how many men do you really meet that are curse to turn into a girl? It was so funny when the boys found out that the girl they'd been fantasising about was actually Ranma. Oh, and I hope you've made sure to exclude anyone carrying cold drinks to the reception."

Akane giggled slightly. Though it was certainly true, she'd met a disproportionately large amount of people who turned into various animals thanks to the curse from the Jusenkyo training ground springs.

"Yep, Nabiki will be taking care of that and Kasumi has taken it into account for dinner. I know it's not been that long, but I kinda really miss Ran-"

Akane gasped, standing up in one fast move, chair cluttering to the ground in her panic. Her right hand clutched her chest as a pulse of pain shot through as if she'd been stabbed in the back. Eyes tearing up she could feel the familiar fury from Ranma, could feel the determination and then there was more pain, then suddenly something that felt almost like cold steel at her neck, a horrible tearing sensation and then... nothing.

Breathless, Akane collapsed on the floor of the cafe staring into thin air. What had that been? Hot tears ran down her face even as a sob wrenched itself from her throat. Ranma couldn't be... no, not Ranma. He was fine. He had to be.

"Akane-chan?" that cautious voice was Sayuri's. A moment later she saw the aforementioned girl kneeling in front of her.

"Hey, are you okay, Miss?" The waiter was coming across to them now and Akane was certain she probably had drawn attention from everyone in the cafe to her, but she took no notice of it.

How do you explain something that your heart knows for certain but which you have no evidence for? How do you explain the certainty, the fact, that your fiancé, the love of your life, is dead even if you don't know why, how or where. Ranma and her had always known – call it martial arts instinct, call it love or a bond- but they had always had this feeling inside of them, known when the other was in mortal danger... and now there was nothing inside her. Nothing. Where she used to have that unsubstantiated but very real spark of Ranma deep within that let her know he loved her, that he was fine... it was all gone.

Ranma was no more.

And then everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next time Akane became more aware of her surroundings she was curled up in bed with Kasumi and her father sitting at her side.

"Akane, you're awake."

"Are you feeling better?"

The blue haired girl stared at them, pain welling up deep in her chest. She wanted – no,_ needed_ to know how it had happened. How had he died? Biting her lip, using the physical pain as a distraction from the emotional one, she looked at her family.

"How...?"

"Sayuri and Yuka called us to pick you up." Akane frowned in confusion but didn't interrupt. "You obviously had a bit of a breakdown with the wedding so close. It's okay. Just relax and we'll handle all the preparations..."

Shaking her head, she looked at them both.

"There is no wedding, don't you get it? Ranma's... Ranma is... dead." She couldn't help the fresh burst of tears that came at that admission. He'd always seemed so strong, so invincible, like nothing would ever be able to kill him – as though he'd survive anything to come back to her.

"Oh honey... Shh, that was just a nightmare. I know he's not returned yet from his training trip, but he'll be back, you see. He'd never miss out on the wedding. I dare say I've never seen the boy so excited. He'll be back before Saturday, Akane, you'll see."

She couldn't even fake a smile for them, heart aching. No one knew what had happened or where he was. He was just... gone. No one believed her and why should they?

Curling up in bed, Akane felt her body shaking with the tears that wouldn't stop coming. She was alone, truly alone. Her Ranma... he'd never be back.

Kasumi and Soun exchanged a glance, patting the young girl on the shoulder uncertainly. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Ranma was still alive – probably just delayed by another old rival or something.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Thursday rolled around the Tendos and Saotomes were getting steadily more nervous. Ranma still had not returned, Akane persisted in her claims of his death and kept staying in the Dojo and Ranma's room, only leaving to go to the toilet. She barely spoke and broke into tears at any given moment.

It seemed outrageous that such a skilled martial artist would be defeated but reluctantly Nabiki started contacting her informants for anything they could find.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane paused on the stairs when she heard Nabiki's voice.

"I've got news."

Hand involuntarily clenching around the banister, Akane stopped all movement. Despite what her family thought she was well aware of what was going on in the house and she knew that Nabiki had been searching for Ranma.

"According to several people Ranma was voluntarily seen going into the Nekohanten last week on Friday."

Closing her eyes in anguish, Akane felt her heart slow down to a crawl. Ranma had been pushing for a while now to have another chat with Shampoo and the old ghoul. They had tried numerous times – Akane had even gotten in a fight against Shampoo hoping it would drive home the point that she and Ranma were not going to separate. Needless to say none of it had any impact on the Amazons. Even on their one year training trip she'd randomly come across them in the mountains – she still wasn't sure how they had managed to keep track of where she and Ranma went. It had all been rather frustrating.

Akane had begged Ranma not to go, thought that with the wedding taking place it would all straighten itself out after that but apparently they had been good for one last ploy.

She only listened half-heartedly as Nabiki described how Ranma had appeared to be mindless as he'd followed the two Amazons – without Mousse – to the airport. Mousse apparently had only found out several hours later at which time he took a plane himself to get across to China.

"The best we can pin together is that they made it in record time to their little village. From there we don't know exactly what happened but... Ranma appears to have somehow ended up in the cat fist. I don't know whether it's because of Shampoo's curse or just stray cats. Obviously he had no one he trusted nearby and when he tried to leave... well, the Amazons opposed him."

Nabiki took a deep breath, grimacing.

"And, well, cats fight when backed into a corner. He- He decimated the Amazons. He took out three elders and a lot of the warriors – men and women alike. They finally overwhelmed him by sheer numbers and he was... he was killed. To be precise from what I've been told the enraged Amazons basically took him apart."

Akane sank to the floor slowly, dazed. On the one hand she'd wanted the knowledge of how, why he'd died. On the other hand there had been a small part of her that had kept hoping that maybe she'd wake up, maybe all the others were right after all and her mind was simply playing tricks on her.

She barely noticed the sobs and cries coming from the living room only noticing now the slight waver in Nabiki's voice as she continued.

"There are some other people we know that came out worse for wear – or not at all. Cologne has lost pretty much her entire left side. She can barely move and probably won't have much longer to live. Shampoo escaped with only a scratch to her face. Mousse died, protecting her when Ranma tried backing away. Link and Perfume didn't make it either."

So Mousse had died in protection of the girl that had started all this: Shampoo. How unfair that after all this drama, all these fights and endless pursuits she would be the one to survive and the man that Akane loved ended up paying the price for her foolishness.

"The Chinese government has ruled in our favour. Nerima police was able to provide them with quite a bit of information regarding the chaos Shampoo has caused over the years and with Akane and Ranma's wedding scheduled for today, as well as the shotgun wedding they'd organised in the Amazon territory the truth came out rather quickly."

There was a momentary pause, before the middle sister continued.

"What remains they have of Ranma's body will be sent to us now that their investigation has concluded. I know it's not much consolation for us at this stage but stricter laws will be imposed on the Joketsuzoku in the future."

The living room devolved into shouting matches, cries and sobs as everyone had to realise the young martial artist they had come to love was truly never going to return. Nodoka was inconsolable – she'd only known her son for such a short period of time.

Silent tears running down her face, Akane returned to Ranma's room, desperately clinging to one of the Chinese shirts he'd left behind. Breathing in deeply she allowed the scent to soothe her as she curled up in his room, staring at one of the few pictures she had of him. Pictures had never seemed like such a big deal – she probably had thousands of him as a girl though usually in lingerie thanks to Nabiki and Happosai - but remarkably few of him in his male form and only two or three of both of them together.

Ranma was dead.

And she would be alone for the rest of her life.

Their dreams of a united Saotome-Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts were shattered, their life together, their married life, their unborn children – none of it would ever happen now. All the fairytale castles her dreams had spun, collapsed.

There was nothing left now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane blankly stared at the white door in front of her. Just moments prior Genma had run into her, coming from that door in a mad, scrambling rush, throwing up. Nodoka had firmly decided against seeing Ranma's remains wanting to remember him alive – not dead.

So here she was – in front of the mortuary.

Nabiki's contacts had once again come through and only three days after the date of their wedding, a sunny Tuesday, Ranma's body had arrived home.

Ignoring her own clammy hands and the sweat on her body she firmly opened the door, head held high. She had been warned – knew that Ranma's body was in pieces, unrecognisable. That's why someone had to identify them – his father.

Stepping closer her eyes barely took note of the mortician next to drawer 19.

"Are you sure, Miss? This is not something you'd want to see."

Lips set in a firm line, Akane's hand closed around the handle and instead of answering the man she pulled it open herself.

Almost reflexively she gagged. That- that was not Ranma. Not the man she loved.

Tears in her eyes she looked at what was left of him. The stench hit her nose, her eyes flitting across the parts of a body, trying to recognise what should have been her future husband in there somewhere.

Finally her eyes settled on a bit of this hair with the dragon's whisker around it still. It had obviously fallen off when he'd had his head- Akane cut the thought off, grabbing the strand of hair and the attached dragon's whisker, hands closing around her small treasure. Her eyes glanced over the remains again, almost as if to burn this image into her retina's – the body of the man he loved, the horrors perpetrated on it by the Amazons; by Shampoo, the woman who'd professed her love for him repeatedly. There was nothing left – none of the spirit she loved nor of the body she remembered cautiously exploring. Everything – everything that was so purely Ranma was truly gone now.

With quick movements she closed the door again, unwilling to imagine the horrifying and bloody death Ranma had suffered through any further.

Still silent, she nodded her thanks to the morticians, hands gripping the hair and whisker tightly, holding it close to her chest. A small part of him that she'd forever carry with her.

With quick steps she distanced herself from the cold place of death where the love of her life rested. Her path was set for the Tendo dojo – not home, but to her family. Home had died with Ranma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She watched as the casket was lowered into the ground.

Akane stood to the side, watching as the earth slowly covered her fiancé's remains, forever separating him from her. She kept watching, staring, even as the last of the other guests left.

She never noticed her family's reassuring hands on her shoulder, didn't hear the voices of her dear friends, Sayuri or Yuka, didn't hear Hiroshi, Daisuke or Ukyo as they passed on their condolences. All Akane had eyes for was Ranma – the same way it had always been and always would be.

One by one they left until she was left alone to say her goodbyes. Who had invented those words anyway? Goodbye. It was never supposed to end like this. There was never meant to be a goodbye between her and Ranma, only a see you later. They were meant to have their forever.

With a gentle smile, tears running down her face, the blue haired girl finally stepped forwards.

"Hey mom... meet Ranma, my fiancé. I know he can't quite keep his mouth shut, but wait a bit. You'll get to know him and he really can be quite sweet, y'know. He just has this horrible male ego and insists on putting his foot in his mouth at the worst possible times... But I love him, so... So please take good care of him for me."

Her eyes fell onto the freshly dug ground next to her mother's grave – as per Akane's wishes. She stared quietly for a moment, before talking again, voice warm and tender, full of love and affection as she remembered the pigtailed man she'd come to love.

"Hey my baka..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly, days turned into weeks and weeks into months.

Akane had always been a strong emotional woman – slight anger turning into righteous fury within the blink of any eye, compassionate beyond reason even on behalf of their enemies, loving with all her heart and when happy, her smile would turn an entire army of men into a blubbering mess. With the loss of Ranma, she became a shadow of herself. Friends and family stood by unable to help the girl they all loved. She smiled and she laughed but there was none of the innate happiness that had made her so charming.

As the half year mark neared, Akane realised that something would have to change – she would have to change. Slowly but steadily she was bringing her entire family down with her. No one dared to leave her alone for prolonged periods of time and she watched as they grew sadder and more upset at how unhappy she was. There was nothing she could do – the only times she was happy anymore were in the dojo and in her sleep, where Ranma was alive.

Something had to give.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane flew into one of the complicated Saotome aerial katas Ranma had drilled into her, almost feeling his rough hands on her waist as he positioned her, his voice whispering into her ear.

Sometimes she could almost see him leaning against the wall, hands crossed behind his head, smirking in satisfaction as he watched her body twist, turn, punch and kick.

Sometimes she could almost hear his voice saying, "hey, that was almost good, tomboy. Now do the whole thing again with more oomph, elbows back, left knee bent further and a smile on your face. You look like I'm torturing you. Had enough? Not martial artist enough, eh? Ah, s'okay. You're just a woman, can't expect too much."

He'd always known how to get her fired up – no matter how exhausted she was, she'd complete it all again until he'd nod in approval before collapsing on the floor. It was usually at that stage - when Akane felt as though she couldn't move even a muscle anymore - or indeed ever again - that he'd make a comment about how the warm-up was now over.

She missed him but when she was training in the dojo it was almost as if he was still there with her. Crawling to the door of the dojo with exhaustion had happened more times than she could count – except that Ranma wasn't here anymore to pick her up and carry her to the bath.

Tears flowing down her cheeks, Akane lost herself in a blurred flurry of punches – the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The need to leave the Tendo dojo had grown into desperation, so Akane announced that she would be going on a training trip. After a tearful goodbye, she started on her way across Japan.

After over a month of following her, her dad finally left her to her own travels and returned home, citing old age and exhaustion.

It didn't take her long to make the decision to travel to China and see Shampoo. After another few months she finally managed to find her way to the village.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane's eyes were cold as they landed on the two female warriors in front of her, though neither of them were ones she recognised she couldn't help but wonder if one or both of them had been the one to deal her love's killing blow. Using the soul of ice technique, something she'd taken nearly four months to learn due to her 'anger issues' – Ranma's words, not hers – she wrestled down her own emotions.

"Akane Tendo. I am here to challenge Shampoo."

Defiantly staring up at the two females she wasn't prepared for the way the disappearance of their weapons and their deferential bow to her.

"We will take you to Elder Cologne right away."

Frowning, Akane subdued her own objections to seeing the old ghoul instead of killing the woman who had caused her to lose everything. She barely took any note of the village or its inhabitants as she was led to what seemed to be a healer's house. One of the warriors – Akane had never bothered to ask for their names and they had not offered – entered ahead of her and she heard the exchange of rapid Chinese words. The words were sufficiently muffled by the door so that, even though she had picked up quite a bit of the language due to her travels, she had no idea what was being discussed.

Moments later the door opened and with another deferential bow she was invited in. Akane hesitated for only a moment before entering – uncertain as to what to expect as bowing to an outsider seemed very out of the norm for the proud Amazons.

"Old ghoul."

Eyes cold, Akane stepped into the room. She noted that the warriors were actually leaving her alone with the old woman and no one else was in the room, surprisingly.

"I have been expecting you."

Stepping closer to the bed, Akane suddenly noticed the huge marks running down the old woman's face and the fact that despite the time that had elapsed since Ranma's death, the woman was still wrapped in bandages. Her face was pasty white and her brow was covered in sweat. Her instincts told her that Cologne was fast approaching her death.

"I see it's a good thing I came now." The normally expressive brown eyes were glacial as she met Cologne's eyes. "If I had been just a bit later you wouldn't be here anymore. And that... would be truly a shame." Her smirk was cold.

The old woman let out a coughing laugh before stopping abruptly, breathing harshly.

"I see you have changed, Akane Tendo."

"You haven't. Same manipulative bitch you were when we first met – only weaker. I normally wouldn't hit an enemy that's already down, but I'll make an exception for you, old ghoul."

"Using your fiancés names for me now, I see."

"Yeah." Akane's hands clenched into a fist and her smile became icy as she cocked her head slightly sideways.

"See, my fiancé died. Here – in your village. Due to one of your stupid schemes! And not that it really matters now, but… You knew you'd already lost, so why? Why did you take him from me? What possessed you?"

She glared at the old woman, fury coursing through her at the sight of the Amazon elder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Calm down, child. I will tell you." Cologne sighed slightly. The biggest mistake of her life – it had cost her and her village far too much. Not only had the village lost knowledge with the death of its elders but also many very capable young warriors had died and others were still in a coma. The Chinese government had never before been particularly bothered about their rules and internal affairs but with Ranma's abduction and death they had managed to cause an international incident. It took a lot of persuasion and concessions to even allow Amazons to keep existing – there had been a huge outcry from the public and a demand that they be integrated into the rest of society. And all because she had taken one boy over to be married; something their tribe had done for thousands of years unchallenged, though admittedly most men kind of liked the beautiful and somewhat domineering Amazon females usually.

What did surprise her was how much the young woman, her son-in-law's real choice, had changed. Gone was the compassionate woman that had empathised even with her own kidnappers, gone was the smiling, happy, lively young girl. She had been replaced by a fierce warrior whose skill might even have been a close match for her own - after all of Ranma's training over the last few years. Well, who might have been a close match to herself only a year ago - now she wouldn't be able to put up much of a resistance at all should the girl decide to end her life.

And, with bitterness Cologne realised that the Akane Tendo she had known was nearly entirely gone – this woman wouldn't hesitate to extract her revenge on herself or Shampoo. She was too far gone to care, too reckless with nothing to hold her back except maybe her own sense of honour. Though Cologne truly doubted that even that would matter in relation to the death of what should have rightfully been her husband – and would have been had she and her foolish granddaughter not interfered.

"I didn't know Shampoo's plan until it was too late. Apparently she'd seen Ranma, packed and ready to leave at the train station. She said she wanted to clear the air between the Amazons and him and invited him to the Nekohanten. Knowing Shampoo she probably half undressed herself to unbalance him or used other methods to keep him sufficiently distracted to put the powder into his drink. It's... not something we like to use. We kept it as it had been used on Amazon warriors before, but Shampoo used it on Ranma. It suppresses the human mind – meaning he didn't have the ability to think for himself, no will of his own, no emotions. He was basically a puppet, acting on everything he was told to do."

Cologne closed her own eyes, remembering with bitterness the moments that had next taken place – the decision which doomed not only her own life but affected so many others, the ripples still causing large waves even now. Just yesterday another one of the elders had slipped from her coma into death, the political climate was tense at best and the restrictions already in place against them were crippling to their society and way of life. One decision, a few words and the entire Joketsuzoku tribe was doomed.

"When I arrived at the cafe and found out what Shampoo had done... I'll admit I was blinded by my own desires. Son-in-law," the female martial artist in front of her growled in warning, hands visibly clenching to restrain her violent urges. Cologne swallowed – she didn't fear death; she'd had more than enough time to grow accustomed to the concept, no, what she feared was the havoc and death Akane's retribution would wreak on Shampoo and the rest of the tribe.

"Apologies – Ranma was a prodigy in the martial arts unlike anything I had ever seen before. His ability to learn techniques and adapt his fighting style was phenomenal. I wanted him as part of our tribe, as fresh blood but more importantly for the future children he'd provide us with, the new female generation we would get through him. Women with his innate ability for fighting – our tribe would have soon been unstoppable. I figured that what was done, was done. I thought that once we had him married to Shampoo, had gotten him to impregnate her, we could stop the mind control. His honour wouldn't allow anything else but staying with her when she had his child."

The old woman shook her head slightly, feeling desolate at the admission of her own foolishness that had brought this down upon them all.

"We bought the tickets and figured we'd deal with selling and handling all our affairs in Japan later. With your wedding so close, time was of the essence before Ranma would be missed. And from there we would be one of your prime suspects for obvious reasons."

Cologne sighed resignedly.

"What we didn't account for was the Neko Ken in relation to the mind control drugs. The wedding had already taken place and Shampoo was meant to ... consummate it with Ranma."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane gasped, for the first time feeling the pain and hurt flare up. Ranma had died... as Shampoo's husband. Not as her fiancé, not as her soon-to-be-husband, no – effectively, with his marriage to Shampoo, their engagement was null and void. Tears gathered in her eyes and she closed them momentarily, willing herself to suppress the pain that knowledge had brought her – neither Nabiki nor anyone else had ever mentioned this titbit of information to her.

"Di- Did they...?"

The old woman grimaced – she hadn't realised the blue haired martial artist was unaware of the marriage. Hopefully that wouldn't complicate things too much.

"No. Shortly after entering the house Shampoo must have gotten hit with cold water somehow. As his human mind was not there to suppress its emergence, Neko Ken took over. He barely grazed Shampoo, mainly intent on getting past her and out of the village. As you can imagine, he didn't trust anyone here. Ranma only wanted to get away – but, well... our warriors had obviously been instructed to keep him here. He fought tooth and nail, but he didn't start dealing killing blows until he was entirely surrounded."

Akane stared.

"Why not just use cold water? Why did you...?"

"Of course we tried to use cold water – and then hot water again followed by cold water. But you forget, the drug suppresses the_ human_ mind. It has no effect whatsoever on animalistic instincts or minds – when Ranma slips into Neko Ken, for all intents and purposes he IS a cat. The human mind was not able to return and so he remained a cat. And when a cat is cornered, it does not back down. He fought viciously – I have never seen the like nor do I ever want to again. I suspect Ranma has always held back as he never wanted to seriously hurt or kill, but the cat had no such restraints this time – not once it was cornered, anyway. I tried to oppose him – I foolishly thought I'd be a match for him. Well, you can see what happened to me."

The elderly woman grimaced.

"When Ranma tried to back up, Shampoo came back out of their house. Mousse died to protect her when she stupidly attempted to coerce Ranma to back down. Many warriors – good warriors died that day. Some are still in a coma, several are disabled and we have lost valuable knowledge with the death of so many elders – too much that we can never recover from. It took all the tribe to even get close enough to him to kill him. Ranma was a ferocious fighter but we had weapons."

Akane paled, eyes blank as she stared at the older woman and voice void of emotions as she took over Cologne's tale. "The first hit was in the back, just below his ribcage. The second one was in his right shoulder. The last – the last decapitated him."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cologne gaped against her will. No one could possibly know that. Even the official investigation couldn't determine which blow had actually been fatal as the villagers had used Ranma's body to vent their anger of the loss of their sisters and brothers. The only ones who knew were the ones who had been there that day.

"I- how?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane smiled sadly, hands automatically reaching for the breast pocket on her jacket. After a moment's hesitation she reached in and showed Cologne its contents; strands of black hair – and a dragon whisker. Ranma's hair.

"Did you know that's all that was left? I've got his shirts but... they don't smell like him anymore. And..." Akane shook her head, "it doesn't matter. He's not coming back."

Inhaling deeply, the blue haired girl leaned back against the wall, eyes on the ceiling as she recalled that time – a lifetime ago – when she'd been laughing with her friends only to feel her fiancé die.

"I felt it, you know? I... didn't want to believe it. All weekend I'd felt as if I was missing out on some big fight – like when I was in Japan, knowing that Ranma was fighting in China. Except – I thought he was safe this time. I was..."

She let out a choked laugh.

"I was having ice cream. _Ice cream! _Can you believe it? Ranma was fighting for his life and I was laughing... I- It didn't click. Not immediately. I felt the stab in the back, felt his anger, felt his strength, his determination... and then the next hit. And then I felt my neck- his neck. And then Ranma was gone. And I knew – I didn't know how or why but I knew."

Akane laughed again, bitterly, as she looked at the old, defeated and scarred woman in the bed in front of her.

"No one believed me – not until our wedding day, when Nabiki got the news."

"I- I didn't know you two were bonded..."

Snorting, the younger woman looked at the old one, the lines on her face unforgiving. Her sorrow had vanished, replaced by cold, hard rage against one of the people who had taken the man she loved from her side.

"And what is that supposed to mean? Another one of your sick tricks? Well, I've got news for you. You have got nothing left to win and you stand to lose everything. I wanted to know what you had done to Ranma – not your twisted guilt trips or whatever it is you're scheming to do now. And I warn you, my patience with you is evaporating into thin air as we speak, old ghoul."

The old woman merely chuckled in response.

"No schemes – as you say, I have nothing left to lose and nothing to gain. And for your information, bonding happens very, very rarely - even in Amazon history. We don't know much about it, except that both partners, female and male, need to be fighters and both need to have risked everything, including their own lives, several times for one another. And, we're not sure if it's coincidental or another condition, but we think at least one of you must have saved several hundred people in some form. It could also be that those are simply the more publicised or acknowledged cases... we don't know much at all about it except that somehow, despite everything in their way, people who are bonded have always found each other in the end. They have always somehow defeated all the obstacles and reports are like you said – they have a feeling about the other person, know when they're in danger or dying. It is one of the few laws above the kiss of marriage or death for Amazons. No one is to interfere with a bonded couple. No one. We have no certainty but it's generally accepted that these couples were chosen by the gods."

Akane gave a hollow laugh.

"Stick your fairytales where the sun don't shine, grandmother. Do you see Ranma here? Do you see us together, happy? Having defeated all the obstacles? Chosen by the gods? Do you even listen to yourself? I am not a gullible sixteen year old anymore! Next you're going to tell me we were soulmates and we will be together in the next life or some other rot. _I-Don't-Care!_ You took my Ranma from me – he was the love of my life, my everything. And you took him from me! Now where's Shampoo?"

"What are you planning on doing to my granddaughter?"

"Nothing she doesn't deserve." Akane's voice was cold and Cologne nodded slightly in acknowledgement at the truth in her words.

"Shampoo has paid a harsh price for what she did. In fact, the only reason I am not subject to the same fate is because we have already lost too many elders and too much knowledge." Cologne sighed softly.

"Shampoo has been exiled and is no longer considered an Amazon – a dishonour of such magnitude, a danger to the village so great that there was no other option left. The last person from our tribe to be exiled was nearly 4000 years ago – and they nearly caused the tribe to be extinct. And when Mousse defended her and paid with his life for doing so, Shampoo finally realised that she loved him. He'd always been there for her, since they were children. He'd followed her to another country, gave up his life as he knew it to be around her even though he knew she was in pursuit of her husband. Her realisation came too late. Shampoo is never allowed to even be near this area or she will die. I am not allowed to contact her, nor is anyone else in the tribe or the cost is both her death and the person to contact her faces the same judgment. Akane Tendo, Shampoo has paid dearly, believe me. It's far worse for her to live with this fate – in fact, though you may not wish to hear this, her fate is similar to yours."

In a flash Akane's hand was on the old woman's throat, eyes glaring with rage and loathing.

"Don't you dare, Cologne – Don't you dare compare that- that bitch to what I suffer through – she caused it. All of it! She brought it on herself and on Ranma and me. We were happy! Happy! What- Why-"

Cutting herself off, the female martial artists hands involuntarily tightened on the older woman's throat. A moment later Akane shook her head, feeling the by now all too familiar surge of emotions take hold of her - pain, loneliness and resentment. A part of her resented Ranma for leaving her here, for leaving her to carry on life without him - somehow.

She slowly released her hold on the old woman, hearing the deep gasps of air she was taking in. Sick satisfaction curled in her stomach at the sight of the strong elder in pain.

Then her mouth twisted in disgust at herself for both her actions and her own feelings. Looking at Cologne, Akane straightened up, eyes cold once more as she surveyed the Amazon.

"It doesn't matter, old ghoul. You don't have long to live. I will let Shampoo live, you have my word on my honour on that. Her death wouldn't resolve anything anyway, I just needed to hear it, I think. Thank you for telling me the truth, elder. Now, don't take this the wrong way but I sincerely hope you'll suffer for eternity for what you've done."

With a short mocking bow she left the house, striding back out to where she'd come from – only Cologne's voice made her pause. The elder Amazon warrior was standing, leaning heavily against the door frame, stick in her hand as actual support instead of standing on it. Her breathing was harsh but her eyes were clear as they held Akane's.

"Akane Tendo. You didn't let me finish."

"What more could you possibly say that would interest me?"

The voice of the younger woman was bored and bordering on disrespectful yet the villagers didn't interfere and simply watched the spectacle unfold in front of their eyes.

"I can see now that we should have never gone this far, Tendo-san. For that you have my apologies. It was short-sighted. Even if he did not slip into Neko Ken then but at a later stage – the damage could've been only more profound, more lives lost as the villagers would've held back so as to not kill him once he was one of theirs. It was doomed before it ever started. It was folly what we did but even an elder makes mistakes. I apologise, Akane Tendo, though I know you will never forgive me. I cannot even forgive myself for the damage I wrought on my own kin. May the rest of your life be less arduous than what you have been forced to endure thus far."

The other woman paused for a moment before nodding shortly.

"You're right. I can't forgive you. It's too little, too late. What you took from me I can never get back. But thank you for apologising anyway – it takes courage to do that knowing you won't be forgiven. As Ranma would've said – you upheld your honour, or what little of it you have left. I can acknowledge that much at least, for him." She gave the old woman a melancholic smile.

"And what would your words for me be, Tendo-san?"

The smile became icy and she glared, her countenance stiffening with anger.

"You don't want to hear the words I would use, old hag."

Cologne gave a short, hacking cough before laughing roughly.

"I didn't think you cared, youngling."

Akane's eyes became glacial and her hands clenched.

"Fine, my words, you say? Well, I think you can take your stupid fucking apology and whatever other sick lines you can come up with and use them on someone who cares. The man I love is dead – and you caused it. I don't give two hoots about your apology or anything else you come up with. Your entire tribe could be dead for all I care – It doesn't matter to me. By killing the man I love you took something from that is irreplaceable. So go apologise to someone who cares. As far as I'm concerned you have no honour and your actions are irredeemable. So, old ghoul, go fuck off and die. That's what your tribe specializes in anyway, isn't it? Chasing people to the ends of the earth and killing them? Wasn't that in your stupid tribal laws? Well, I hope you die. And I hope it's a slow, excruciatingly painful death. Now leave me the fuck alone before I decide to lend you a hand and give you an earlier demise than you deserve."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The same two warriors were at her heels again as she turned and left and Akane couldn't help but admit that once again Cologne had won. She was leaving – without the names of the ones who had killed her fiancé, without Cologne's or Shampoo's death on her hands. And she wasn't sure if she should be glad for that or curse to them.

Half-way to where she'd left her pack and rations, she felt the ki of the Amazons that had accompanied her, retreat back to the village. Akane paused – what now? She'd come here for revenge and to allow her family to heal without her. Where to go from here? Not home – without Ranma there was no home. So where to?

It only took her another moment to decide – Ranma and her had travelled a lot across Asia, but they had wanted to go across to Europe in a few years time, as husband and wife. That would never happen now, but at the very least she could go – live their dreams for the both of them. Decision made, Akane once again set off. If she found Shampoo en route - great. If not, then all the better for the both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was pure chance, nothing else, that made her stumble across Shampoo. She was in a café, of all places, serving as a waitress. At first she didn't recognise her – just as she had, Shampoo too had changed drastically from the young impassioned Amazon warrior in constant pursuit of Ranma.

The Shampoo she remembered had beautiful long hair, tight and usually rather revealing clothes and wore make up that only enhanced her natural beauty. The girl in front of her was nothing like that; her clothes were entirely black and shapeless, covering her head to toe. Her long hair was cut short – eerily similar to haircut she herself used to have – and there was no trace of makeup on her face.

So it was no surprise when Akane said her name questioningly, emotionlessly as she had half-expected the girl to be living the high life despite Cologne's words.

"Shampoo?"

The Ex-Amazon's head shot up rapidly, eyes making contact with her own and finally realization dawned.

"Violent gi- Akane?"

Lips twisted into a frown, she nodded harshly in response.

"You've changed."

"So you have too."

They looked at each other, assessing for a moment before Shampoo shouted over to her manager that she'd be taking her lunch break now.

"We talk?"

Akane smirked but followed the girl outside to a dark alley. Expecting a fight her hands clenched automatically into fists and she smoothly slid into a defensive position, eyes fixed on her enemy.

To her surprise the Amazon was bowing to her, head down and neck bared to her in a submissive stance.

"I is sorry. I know no make better now, but I know you love Airen. I never want Ranma die. I… I miss Mousse. I sorry for killing man you love. I give you my life in return."

Was this another ploy? Another distraction? Nevertheless, Akane paused. Shampoo had no weapons in her hands and was still in the same submissive stance. Following on instinct she instructed, "Look at me, Shampoo."

And instead of seeing the cold calculation she'd expected there was only the same loneliness and pain she herself felt over Ranma reflected in the red-brown eyes of her enemy. Tears were clearly running unashamedly down the girls face and she made no move to hide her weakness.

And for the first time in nearly a year the icy rage was overwhelmed with a short burst of sympathy – she knew very well how the girl felt, after all, knew the pain and longing all too clearly, the empty nights and the distraught emotions that nearly sent her over the edge more than once. She knew. It was probably the only reason she didn't immediately spring into fighting mode, the only reason she suppressed her desire to somehow seek revenge.

"Why, Shampoo?"

The purple-haired girl didn't hesitate, baring all her emotions to the woman she'd wronged – Cologne hadn't been able to talk much to her before they had been forever separated but she'd made it clear just how badly they'd gone wrong with their plan and their decision. And that Akane would be more than in her right to kill her as soon as she saw her.

"Shampoo no know love. Shampoo think she love Airen – he handsome, strong man. Shampoo no realise she love Mousse – he weak. But love is heart, not head. Shampoo sorry. Thought Ranma love her soon – no realise what word mean… Now miss Mousse."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane's lips twisted bitterly, feeling emotions well up inside her that she suppressed.

"Couldn't you have had that epiphany before you tried to marry and ended up killing Ranma?"

Akane shook her head, feeling desolate and empty. Without revenge, what was left to her?

"I can't forgive you. You've taken- You took everything from me, everything that ever meant anything to me. Without him- without him there's nothing… nothing!"

"Shampoo know."

Rage overwhelmed her sympathy before she could even blink, body and fists moving without her command as she sent the Amazon warrior flying against the dumpster meters behind her.

"DON'T! DON'T YOU FUCKING _DARE_ TO TELL ME YOU KNOW!"

With a jolt of strength her feet propelled her forward, following the flight path of the other girl. Shampoo simply stood up, not bothering to wipe the blood off her, simply standing defenselessly, hands listlessly positioned at her sides.

"Shampoo knows."

Tears running down her face unchecked, Akane's kick hit Shampoo's unprotected side, her hands flying to keep the girl in position as she kneed her in the stomach before her fists flew, hitting soft tissue with all her force.

She could hear the sickening crack of bones under the onslaught and for a moment she was horror-struck by the realization that her mind knew exactly how much damage to inflict on the girl without killing her – how to hit her to cause maximum pain. But Akane didn't stop, knew she wasn't that far gone, yet, knew she would have to cause a lot more pain before a strong warrior like Shampoo would succumb.

"DON'T! YOU have no idea what it's like, what I've been through! You slaughtered him – you didn't kill him, you tore him to bits! There was nothing – nothing – left of him, of Ranma! And you dare- _you DARE to tell me YOU KNOW_?"

Breathing heavily more from the sheer anger rather than exertion she watched as the Amazon struggled to her feet, still not defending herself, still not attacking – simply taking whatever Akane threw at her.

Red-brown eyes met Akane's, heavy and sad and… expectant?

"Shampoo know."

And then it hit her. Her hands slowly lowered themselves, falling to her sides as she stared, unable to help herself.

The purple haired girl looked confused for a moment, frown crinkling her forehead before it smoothed out again.

"SHAMPOO KNOW!"

The Ex-Amazon was crying though Akane doubted that she was aware of it, her body leaning forward and her eyes searching. She was trying to make her angry.

Realisation settled in her stomach, voice calm as the last of her anger drained.

"I'm not going to kill you, Shampoo."

True desperation flared up on the other girl's face, anguish and longing clear in her eyes even as the tears continued running.

"No – you no understand. Shampoo kill Ranma, my weapon – kill him. Tear bits – me! … Please…"

And then she broke down, sobs heaving her chest as she sank to the floor.

"Please…"

An almost silent plea, but Akane knew what she wanted. It wasn't hard to see – it was something she'd almost sought out herself, something she'd wanted, no, craved, a desire, need to be back with Ranma or at least unaware of anything; of his death – a lack of strength, of faith in herself to make it through this or, to be more precise, a lack of desire to make it through this. They'd both sought death and both would be denied.

"No. I won't let you, I won't allow you to die. Not today, not until you're old and gray and have lived all the days of your life without Mousse just as I must live mine without Ranma. You WILL suffer through this, you will keep on living and you will not kill yourself – by my hands or anyone else's. That is your repentance, your due to pay for what you did."

Eyes cold and hard, Akane sank onto the ground beside the purple haired girl, forcing her face up so she could look into her eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I will never forgive you – you understand, never! What you've done – to me, to him, I can never forgive. But I won't kill you and neither will you. No suicide, no seeking out death. You WILL live."

Shampoo sobbed but nodded – she had been stripped off her Amazon status but the tribe had been very, very clear in that if Akane Tendo, Ranma's intended, ever sought out retribution, Shampoo was to do exactly as she said. She'd expected fully to die, to live as slave or something equally demeaning. To be told to live was in equal parts incredibly merciful as it was agonizing. She suspected Akane Tendo knew exactly what it was that she was asking of her.

"Shampoo will live."

The cold girl in front of her nodded sharply. She was barely recognizable – oh, she still looked the same but the wide smile that had so easily swayed her Air- swayed Ranma, lured him away along with other helpless males, was gone. There was none of the softness or innate warmth anymore, instead it had been replaced by cold, harsh, simmering rage, barely suppressed, even now.

Akane had changed. But then, so had Shampoo. Never would she have imagined that in such a short space of time things would go so wrong for her. Never could she have imagined what the loss of Mousse would do to her – he'd protected her, despite the fact that she had chosen someone different, had married another man, he hadn't hesitated for even a second and given his life to protect hers.

So much hate, so much pain – and all of it for nothing.

Shakily she pushed herself up – she'd have to get back to her job, earn money if she was to keep on living. She watched the stiff countenance of the young woman disappear into the masses before walking back into the outside world.

She was not an Amazon anymore but at least she was still a warrior – and she honoured her promises.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The hatred Akane felt for Shampoo never abated but weeks later she could finally admit that maybe the other girl was in enough agony as it was. The cold fury subsided but left in its absence only pain, longing and loneliness.

Leaving China behind quickly, Akane moved on towards Europe. She sought out and learned martial arts and techniques from different dojos. Her trips took her all over the different countries as she spent all her life devoted to the arts, trying to accomplish what Ranma had wanted – incorporating different skills and martial arts to form their own, joint anything goes martial arts school. Now, more than ever, she was painfully aware of how much longer she took to learn a technique compared to his blinding speed and comprehension. A part of her had always admired and envied the ease with which he assimilated to the different environments, requirements and techniques of any given fight.

Akane entered contests – most times she won and other times, however rarely, she lost. The passion and the love she had for martial arts had faded with the loss of her love. Over their short time together the art and everything related to it had become so intricately connected to Ranma that she found herself unable to recall the fire she'd had just a few years ago.

After nearly two years of travelling, she found herself in the Italian Alps, though she'd made sure to always go back to Nerima, Japan on the day of Ranma's death. Akane usually stayed for nearly a week and never left before what would have been the day after their wedding ceremony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Against her own judgment, Akane found herself part of a search group in the mountains. A blizzard made it nearly impossible to see more than the hand in front of one's face but the five year old boy lost in its depths made all of them push on despite the lack of visual feedback.

Ice and Snow didn't give the child a high chance of survival which was why time was of the essence. Trudging through the snow all the members of the expedition were connected by a piece of rope. Due to her extra strength and training, Akane found herself at the very back of the group.

Pausing momentarily, Akane found herself being pulled along again. She could've sworn for just a moment she'd heard...? With a quick jump she was beside the guy in front of her, tapping him on his shoulder. Explaining with quick signs what she'd heard, she watched as he passed the message on. Impatient as she felt herself being pulled from the child's possible location, she allowed her gloves to work on the rope connecting her to the others.

Within moments she was free to pursue the noise she'd heard.

Rushing off in the direction the noise had come from, she vaguely heard a shout from her group behind her. Allowing her energy to flow, she detected a weak sign of life in front of her. Forcing herself to move cautiously, she kept walking into the direction of the child until she was right in front of it – due to the blizzard obscuring her vision she noticed too late what had happened.

Her feet were only standing on snow – not mountain covered in snow. She knew about snow crevices but in her certainty of finding the child she'd abandoned prodding the snow with her stick. A mistake.

Abandoning the stick in her hand, Akane reached out and grabbed the child just as the snow was crumbling under its tiny hands. Despite the rapid fall, she tightened her hands around the child and pushing her strength into her arms, threw her onto the safe, if snow covered, rock surface.

Now in a desperate bid of trying to find purchase herself to push off for a jump, Akane pulled her jacket up until it covered her hands before desperately trying to find the mountain underneath the snow to stop her fall. Pressing herself against the surface she felt her descent slow further and nearly breathed a sigh of relief when her right foot got caught. Her hands suddenly only grabbed thin air as the sudden foothold had propelled her body just far enough from the cliff to have it out of arms reach. As her body bent under the force of gravity she heard a sickening crack from her ankle, suddenly glad for the cold numbing it. The next moment her head hit a rock behind her she hadn't seen and Akane was unconscious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next time she woke up, everything was blurry. And cold. Gasping in surprise and pain she tried to force the adrenaline in her system to give her sufficient strength but her body remained unresponsive.

She went unconscious again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second time she woke up everything was clear but with the sort of detachment that only comes with shock. Gritting her teeth, Akane lifted a hand to her head – she was still dangling head first downwards. When it came back smeared with blood, she knew she was in trouble. There was no telling how bad the injury was nor how much blood she'd already lost or how long she'd been unconscious even. The blizzard was still going though it did seem to have calmed down somewhat at least.

By willpower alone Akane managed to find some rock barely within reach for her gloved hands. She managed to pull herself halfway up before dizziness overwhelmed and unconsciousness took over again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The third and last time she woke up she knew she wouldn't make it out of this one alive. Her hands searched out her breast pocket with the last dredges of strength she had, clutching its contents securely as if they were the world's biggest treasure.

Her body had cooled down drastically, her heartbeat had slowed and she'd lost all sensation in her legs. Akane barely managed to stay awake for a few moments, her last thoughts going to the little boy and hoping he'd been found by the rest of the search party and her family. All the people she'd leave behind as well as Ranma and her mom, whom she'd join now – wherever they were.

At least she'd died the way she wanted to. Saving people, fighting. The way a martial artist should die. The way the man she loved had died, fighting with his dying breath to return to her. Her hands were clutched tightly around a strand of hair and a dragon's whisker.

_'Ranma...'_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a gasp, Akane shot up in her bed, staring wildly around her.

What the...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

Well, I'll leave this here for now. I've written enough and I'm 4k's into the second chapter already *rolls eyes*. Don't worry, Thoughts and Neko story will be continued – probably tomorrow.

Let me know what you guys think of the story – hope you like it. Please review! With any luck some from the usual suspects! Oh, and if you spot anything awry, as usual, please point it out and I'll try to correct it.

REVIEW! … Please?


	2. Dreams of living or living your dreams?

Hey, here's the second chapter. I would normally write long responses to each individual reviewer but I managed to sprain my ankle and I'm back off to bed. Don't expect any updates for a week or two I'm afraid. Sorry guys!

This chapter is dedicated to my fabulous and overworked beta reader **pursemonger** (if you get the chance, check out her stories) as well as all my reviewers:

**Compucles**

**rancheesan**

**The Keeper of Worlds**

**Riniko22**

**Armichi**

**Flameraven1**

**ownson**

**Wingman0**

**Megatyrant**

**caia-chan**

**Janissa**

**BobV**

**jasonjkay**

Please enjoy the next chapter and reviews, constructive criticism or if you've got plot/OOC flaws to point out - all welcome! Let me know what you think :) Oh, and by the end it should be fairly easy to figure out where in time Akane actually is…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane stared – she couldn't help it. She remembered the cold, the chill settling into her very bones, the wooziness, the faint feeling due to bloodloss, the way she hadn't been able to feel her limbs any more and the drowsiness as her heart had slowed down progressively. She was sure of it – she had died. So how...?

Had she maybe been somehow rescued just in the nick of time?

Forcing her body upright her hands automatically checked her legs for damage the way she would if she'd woken up unconscious after a fight. When she felt her toes wriggle and the duvet move in time with her thigh muscles she hesitated for only a moment longer. Biting her lips she finally forced her covers off of her – Akane had never been an extremely vain girl - you couldn't really afford to be as a martial artist - but she really didn't want to see what her legs must look like. She was bound to have frostbite or lost toes at the very least. Cringing involuntarily, she slowly opened her eyes.

Huh. Well, what do you know...? For a corpse she looked pretty good – and for a frozen, half-dead person too.

Poking hesitantly at her calves she was partly relieved to feel her nerve centre record the sensation but for the most part, the blue haired girl was simply confused. What the hell had happened? Her body was normal – hell, better than normal and far better than she had any right to expect.

Only then did she register the look of the pajamas she'd pulled up in her haste to look at her legs. They used to be her favourite pair a long time ago - yellow with black pigs on it. The very same ones she'd cut up and thrown out years ago, shortly after Ranma had explained Ryoga's curse to her. She'd regretted her overreaction later, missing the PJ's she connected with so many fond memories of sleepovers and Ranma, but as the shop had since closed down she had been unable to buy herself another pair.

Gaping, she stared at the yellow fabric as her fingers gently straightened them out. Was this for real? How could this...? Had her family somehow rescued these? No, that couldn't be. She'd personally used scissors and cut the thing into millions of tiny bits - not even Kasumi would have been capable of restitching that mess back together. But then... how?

Stunned, Akane rubbed her head, trying to force herself to think logically. Off the top, she reminded herself. What was the last thing she could recall?

She remembered being in the middle of the blizzard, inside of one of the snow crevices. Her foot had been stuck and she was pretty sure she'd dislocated her ankle. On top of that she had managed to hit her head and it had been bleeding heavily... her head!

Inexplicably anxious her hands carefully prodded and searched out the spot she'd been bleeding from but came back dry and empty. Touching gently all across her head she realised that there wasn't anything there – no injury, no bumps.

Fascinated, Akane found herself staring at her hands. How had this happened? Her legs, her pajamas, her head... was she- was she dead?

But no, the last time she'd been dead, in Jusendo, there hadn't been anything like this – no room, no self-awareness as such, just black emptiness without thoughts or emotions. And wasn't that a weird thing to say all by itself? How many people died more than once?

But that wasn't the point just now. How come she was here now? Even in the limited light from the slowly rising sun she was fairly certain that this was her room; she'd lived here for so many years Akane had an almost intuitive recognition of her surroundings.

She glanced across to the light switch, before her eyes scanned the floor and the room again. Did she really want to do this? What would happen if she left the bed? Would everything dissolve around her? Would she realise this was a last attempt from her brain to shelter her from the reality?

Eyes narrowing and shoulders straightening, Akane moved her legs over the edge of the bed. She was a martial artist, a fighter! She lived in reality not in weird fantasies that her brain made up for her!

Forcing strength in her legs she stood up and decisively walked over to the light switch, still surprised that everything was just as it had been – immobile and familiar. The floor under her feet felt solid and just the way she remembered. Blinking rapidly the sudden glare proved to be too bright for her. After a moment her eyes had adjusted to the sudden influx of light and Akane looked around her room curiously.

This was... almost exactly like her room when she'd been younger – no, scratch that. This WAS her room from when she'd been younger. She wasn't sure how old she'd been exactly, but it was before she'd met up with Shinnosuke again. The lack of photographs were a dead giveaway as was the necklace he'd given her with the whistle, peeking out of the box with her other childhood toys.

Stepping cautiously forward Akane almost expected everything to disappear or change – but it all remained as it was; stationary, immobile. Hands reaching out she hesitantly touched her wardrobe – it was firm and cool in comparison to her warm hands but it was _there_. Her fingertips could feel the different grooves, the wood and the way it slowly warmed up under her touch. Looking closer she noticed there were some scratches and marks on it from the battles she'd had in this room – but far less than there had been the last time she'd seen it.

This was confusing.

By chance she caught a glimpse of herself in her makeup mirror and she froze.

What the...?

Eyes unerringly fixed on the small piece of glass she stepped closer. Surely not...!

Her eyes widened as she finally caught more than a glimpse of herself – an incredibly young Akane looked back at her from within the mirror – her cheeks still showing traces of baby fat, eyes wide and innocent, lips soft and tender. Tilting her head slightly she came to the astonishing realisation that yes, all her larger scars were indeed gone.

Looking back at her was an Akane from about the time she'd first met Ranma. This was not the fierce battle-hardened martial artist; this was the soft girl that saw martial arts as a passion – not as the only way to survive in the sinister world out there that seemed to only be out to kidnap, hurt and kill.

With wide eyes and an open mouth she felt her legs sag beneath her as shock set in.

Maybe… maybe this was the way she thought of herself - simply her image of herself in her head? Sixteen? A young, innocent girl? Was that it?

No – that definitely couldn't be it; she wouldn't do that to herself, surely. That would be far too painful. She'd been a young girl back then who still didn't realise the sheer staggering amount of love her heart could hold for the man she had been unwillingly engaged to. At sixteen she had only ever had to live through her mother's death as a child – when she'd been too young to comprehend what was happening and why her father was so broken up over the loss even a decade later. She hadn't realised how hard Ranma's death would hit her or how happy she could be with him; how much she had in her life worth appreciating, worth cherishing.

This girl looking back at her from the mirror was no her; not anymore at least.

Overwhelmed, Akane redirected her gaze to her arms, absently taking note of which scars were gone to establish some sort of time frame for herself. No Ryugenzawa, both the whistle and the lack of scars were evidence for that. It was funny she had never taken account of all the small scars she'd accumulated over the years so it was difficult now to pinpoint which ones were missing. But judging by the youth of her face and the remarkable lack of scars she could see it was probably another year or so before the fight with the Orochi.

Hmm... Didn't they say pain wasn't real in your dreams? There was no hesitation as her fist sped down onto her knees but she groaned slightly at the pain that followed it.

Huh, so not a dream.

Was this really the afterlife?

If so, it sucked. Plus she didn't even believe in this sort of thing... So where to go from here?

It wasn't afterlife, she couldn't have gone to the past… so what did that leave? A remarkably vivid dream?

What if shereally had dreamt all of it? Dreamt up Link and Pink, Perfume, Cologne, Happosai, near-weddings, engagements, insane pineapple-chasing lunatics of a headmaster, weird girls that could become adult teachers by sucking the fighting energy out of people – potions, curses, charms and whatever else...Could her brain really have come up with all that? It seemed somewhat unlikely. Not impossible – especially after all she'd been through, though now it was doubtable whether she had ever been through anything at all or if this was all simply her messed up brain sending her a dream.

It did make more sense at least than her prior theories. She had a remarkably normal life as a young child – except for Shinnosuke. What if it really was all just a dream? Ranma, the engagement, the life-risking insanity that had been their life before he had died?

In an odd way it would make sense. After all, people couldn't really do all that Ranma, Ryoga, Cologne and Happosai were capable of. She should've realised sooner: Orochis, curses that turned men into women, pigs, ducks or cats, demi-gods, curses, ghosts – it was so unlikely. This was the real world – not a fairytale or TV show. Of course it couldn't be- wasn't real.

Conclusion drawn, Akane was surprised to feel her heart ache with pain and the feeling that she'd lost something important well up insider her. Because if she believed that it was all a dream it would also inevitably mean that Ranma wasn't real. His martial arts skill alone was out of this world, never mind the endless barrage of ki attacks he'd learned over the years. It simply didn't make sense for someone like Ranma, whose very existence was extraordinary, to live in her normal world. He must have just been a person her mind had made up to cope with her loneliness or need for romance - whatever. The point was the person she loved didn't exist. He'd not died but he had never really lived either.

Clenching her hand over her chest, Akane closed her eyes, pained. How could you miss someone who never existed? But she did - she missed him, her baka. The love of her life. She'd take all the insanity, death and danger of her dreams if only she could have him back.

Could you really love someone who your brain made up? Because she did, she loved him – now and forever. How would she go on now? Who could ever compare to an insanely skilled martial artist her brain had made up? Someone who had risked his life for her? Saved her more times than she could count? Someone who valued masculinity above all else and yet gave up on cures to the curse that turned him female - all for her?

Motionlessly she stared at her mirror image as if all the answers could be found there when her sister interrupted her.

"AKANE! You're going to be late for school!", Nabiki's voice came from right outside her room and the blue haired girl found herself staring at the door with mixed feelings, ripped out of her admittedly circular thinking.

School? How- School? But she'd been out of school so long now, would she really have to- Forcefully Akane cut the thought of, reminding herself that it had all been a dream, nothing else. It was time to go back to real life and, well, she'd figure everything out as she went along.

With quick, familiar movements she dressed in her school uniform and made her way down to the family room, only hesitating momentarily by the door to what would've been Ranma's room. Shaking the thought and the melancholy that came with it off, she took the steps down to join her family for breakfast.

There was her father reading his newspaper. Nabiki was just finishing off her own food and getting ready to stand up and Kasumi – well, Kasumi was smiling softly at her like always, unchanging even when the havoc in her dreams had occurred.

Akane couldn't help the disappointment coursing through her at the realisation that it really had all been a dream. There was no boy (or girl) dressed in all-too-familiar Chinese clothing and no sign of either a Panda or an old martial artist with glasses anywhere to be seen. She bit back a grimace at the confirmation of her hypothesis. A dream.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?"

Forcing a smile for her older sister she looked up.

"Good, thank you Onee-chan. I just had a weird dream, is all. I think I'll go to school now."

Brown eyes flitted down as she grabbed her bento – missing entirely the fact that there was not one but two full bentos left behind. She thanked Kasumi for the food, not giving anyone time to object to her rapid departure. All her appetite had evaporated the moment she'd realised that her fiancé wouldn't be siting next to her, sparring with his dad using chopsticks and gulping down food as if he had been starving for months.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She'd run half the distance to school before she stopped, emotions running havoc. Pained, Akane closed her eyes, suppressing the tears that wanted to emerge. By the gods, she missed him, her almost-husband. Even if he wasn't real.

"Hey, tomboy! Why didn't you wait for me! Tardy week is over, we don't need to rush!"

The blue haired girl froze, standing stock still, too scared to turn around in case her imagination was playing tricks on her.

That voice – so heartrendingly familiar; but it couldn't be, could it? He was a figment of her imagination... right? Despite that, heart beating fast, she whirled around, brown eyes shimmering with unreleased tears.

"Ra-Ranma?"

"Of course, dummy, who else would it be? And you call _me_ a baka!"

There he was – in all his glory. Blue Chinese shirt, loose dark trousers, black pigtail, self-confident smirk and sparkling blue eyes fixed on her in anger. She stared, eyes scanning him before they fixed on his face and his eyes, powerless to stop herself from mindlessly gawking at the boy in front of her.

Akane couldn't help it – she'd pretty much convinced herself that he wasn't real, that he couldn't have died because he'd never existed in the first place but this, now...? He was here, he was real. She was aware she was staring at him like men in the Sahara looking at water, but she couldn't help it, unable to stop herself even if she tried. Ranma was real – and alive! How! What-?

Ranma's face twisted into a frown and his eyes took on a concerned look which she'd been subjected to often enough to recognize immediately despite his words to the contrary.

"Yo, tomboy?" Her lips quirked up in a smile at the familiar, loving pet name he had for her.

Obviously that only worried Ranma more and his frown deepened. Then he took note of her flushed cheek and shining eyes and she could immediately see the panic set in. That had never changed – a nice constant over all these years. Her fiancé never could handle her tears, terrified at even the slightest sign she might start crying.

"Are you- I mean- I didn't mean to, y'know...? … Sorry..." He bit his lips nervously before his shoulders sagged slightly and he stepped closer, hands hovering uncertainly above her own shoulders, too shy to dare and touch her but trying to console her anyway.

"'kane, what's wrong?"

"I- Ranma..."

She wanted to hug him, smother him in kisses and love declarations – make him promise to never ever leave her again, training trip or no training trip. But she wasn't blind. This was not the man confident in her love for him – this was a teenage boy, uncertain of his own feelings and her responses. This was not _her_ Ranma; this was her unwillingly engaged fiancé.

It was too much, all too much. She'd regained him and yet not. It was Ranma alright, that much was easy to discern. His movements, his way of talking, all purely Ranma – but it wasn't_ her_ Ranma. This was not the man who had struggled with himself and finally brought himself to train her, this wasn't the man who despite hating hurting her was one of the worst task masters she'd ever experienced, this wasn't the man who'd kissed her, passionately, whispering 'I love you' over and over as she gasped his name; this wasn't the man who had risked his life, repeatedly, for her. This was Ranma before he'd grown up, before they'd grown up together – this was a boy who had not been forced through life-changing adventures that slowly made him become an adult.

And gods, she missed that man – even here, being in front of the boy she loved, she missed being able to touch and kiss him.

But, more importantly right now, she still didn't know what was going on! That had obviously not been a dream – so what was it? And what was this now? Which was reality? Or were both?

"I- Ranma, I'm not feeling well."

She gave him a shaky smile, face pale as her mind tried to reassert itself, sending her mind tumbling into confusion, thoughts running rampant. There was no way she could even mildly pretend to be a sixteen year old Akane just now – never mind figure out whether she had to or not.

"I-I think I'll skip school today. Could you let the teacher know?"

His concern for her was mounting – it was easy to see how worried he was for her now. Akane never ever skipped school – not even when the principal himself was trying to stop her from attending.

"Are you sure?" He asked doubtfully, scanning her so quickly that she barely noticed his eyes straying from her own at all, knowing he might be accused of being a pervert if he lingered too long on any other part of her body.

Akane's hands twitched, eager to reach out and draw him in for a kiss, to feel him, taste him. She refrained and took a step back instead, removing herself from the temptation.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Please, Ranma?"

He blushed at the warm smile she gave him, her puppy dog eyes in full effect. He gave her another cursory glance but when he was unable to detect any injury simply shrugged slightly in acquiescence to her request.

"'Course. See ya later, 'kane!"

With two quick jumps he was back on the fence, running towards school, a faint bell noise echoing in the distance, reminding him of the time.

She watched Ranma disappear into the distance, watched as he dodged, jumped – got splashed by the old lady and turned into a buxom redhead instead of the handsome male – still jumping and dodging, running all the way to school. She stared. It was real, all of it.

So what did that mean? A vision of the future?

Unwillingly, Akane snorted. Vision, right! She'd lived through it – the pleasure, the pain, the horrors, the love, the death. It was real, all of it.

So where did that leave her? This was as real as things could get, of that much she was certain. But what did that mean? Could someone travel into the past? And if so, how? There had been no magic ritual, nothing she'd triggered – she'd been hanging from a mountain for goodness sake! There had been no weird concoctions she could've been drinking, no springs to fall through... so was she really in the past?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sighing, Akane walked the familiar path down to the park, sitting on one of the empty swings, feeling the slight drizzle of rain slowly soak her clothes as she stared stonily at the ground.

So at least she had determined that she had actually lived through what she'd lived through. But what did that mean? Would everything happen as before? She and Ranma get almost married – he gets drugged and marries Shampoo only to die moments later? Was that it? Everything there was to it? Would she live through this again and again? Or could she change things? Could she influence the future?

Inhaling deeply, Akane leaned back on the swing, relishing the feel of the wet droplets hitting her face. They were almost a confirmation of her existence.

So... did this mean that she was really dead somewhere? Was this some sort of alternative universe? Had her family been handed her dead body? Were they grieving even now while she was happy that she'd received a second chance...?

Huh, was that what this was? A second chance? With Ranma – to have their happily ever after?

Lost in contemplations, the youngest Tendo slowly moved back and forth on the swing, trying to sort through her thoughts.

If - and it was a big if - this really was hers and Ranma's second chance, only he didn't remember, did that mean that she could change things? And if so, what would she change?

Flexing her hands slightly at least one answer came to her easily enough. She needed to train. She was good - but nowhere near good enough for what was yet to come. Her body was slow and unfit compared to the glowing paradigm of fitness she'd been in the future. Akane knew now she could improve, could get better with the exception that she wouldn't have a training partner to encourage her (or insult her depending on your point of view).

She'd need to find out when she was - if everything really had taken place as she remembered. And then she needed to plan from there. Most importantly and above all else – she needed to further her relationship with Ranma without alerting him to her change in attitude or maturity. Calling him a pervert had been counterproductive and it had taken her a long time before her fiancé was truly comfortable initiating their more 'physical' encounters. So she needed to slowly and steadily introduce him to affectionate touches, to her unconditional support, her friendship. It would be a long time before she'd be back where she used to be with their relationship.

Grim determination took hold and Akane leapt up, running back home, feeling energised. She'd get fit again, would learn all the techniques again – her mind knew what she needed to do and how her body needed to feel for each kata and attack so it shouldn't be too hard to learn this time around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh god she was wrong – so wrong. She'd almost forgotten - more like suppressed - the hard and exhausting training Ranma had pushed her through those first few months.

She was spent. Already! Far earlier than she'd originally anticipated. Her body was comparatively rather good judged against her classmates but she'd only ever been in short bursts of fights with the boys in front of school – this prolonged exercise combined with the strenuousness of teaching it new unprecedented ways to twist, turn, punch, kick and flip was simply too much.

Grimly forcing herself to stand up again, reminding herself of her goal – Ranma's survival – she forced herself through one of the easiest Saotome aerial katas at higher and higher speeds. Sweat pouring down her face, hair plastered to her head, and every muscle in her body aching, she pushed on.

Akane Tendo didn't give up – no matter what. Especially not with stakes this high.

Gritting her teeth she pushed past the point of pain that usually would have caused her to stop. Grunting slightly at the exertions she slowly, patiently moved her body through the motions for the second kata, correcting herself all the way.

It was odd how unused her body was to the movements. Suddenly it required large amounts of concentration just to remember to twist her foot that little bit more inward, to hold her elbow that little bit higher.

Eyes closed to allow for maximum focus she restarted the kata from the beginning, increasing her speed minimally. As Akane launched into the sideways kick she noticed a moment too late that her footing had been off – and promptly crashed, hard.

Cursing, Akane punched the floor of the dojo – partly to relieve the stress and partly in attempt to distract from the pain in her hip. After a moment she reluctantly forced herself on roll onto her other side, hands carefully prodding the injured hip. With a relieved sigh, she located nothing but one large bruise forming underneath her gi. Well, at least that was something.

Frowning she stood up again, ignoring the pain coming from her hip as she bent her knees gently and got back into position. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Ranchan, what do you say to some free okonomiyaki at my place now?"

Ignoring his 'cute' fiancée Ukyo in his concern, Ranma dashed home, leaving a bewildered okonomiyaki chef behind. The male martial artist was not usually one to decline free food so the fact that he'd simply waved her off, was puzzling in itself but unfortunately the young woman didn't have time to pursue her errant fiancé if she wanted to open her restaurant on time.

Ranma told himself firmly that he wasn't worried, not at all. It just happened that the tomboy was behaving so oddly - first Kasumi had been the one to wake him up instead of his fiancée and then she'd told him that Akane had left without him. By the time he'd finally caught up with her, she seemed startled to see him and then been both happy and yet sad. It was puzzling him. He'd noticed her tears – and Akane was not one of those girls who started crying at the slightest provocation; he should know since he was the one doing most of the provoking.

She'd just looked at him with that indecipherable expression and he hadn't known what to do. So when she'd asked him to let the teacher know, he'd agreed, but now he was... put off, that was the word! Not worried or anything like that – but she hadn't insulted him back. In fact she'd even smiled when he'd called her tomboy. Something just had to be seriously wrong!

"Hello Kasumi... Say, just- have you-"

"Welcome home, Ranma. If you're looking for her, Akane's in the dojo."

Kasumi's gentle smile made him involuntarily respond in kind, blushing at the way she had known who he was looking for before he'd even gotten around to asking properly.

With a quick nod to her he slowed down his walking speed and casually made his way over to the dojo. He really wasn't worried – he was just looking for some exercise. And besides the noises would tell him just what mood his fiancée was this time around and experience had taught him that if she was angry he'd be the most likely candidate for her to take it out on. So it was simple self-preservation, really, not concern or anything like that.

To his surprise the Dojo was deadly quiet – hesitantly Ranma continued on his path, now curious in spite of himself. Opening the doors quietly at first glance he couldn't see anyone.

Then he noticed her - she was unexpectedly lying on the floor, spread-eagled and unmoving. And for a moment he was frozen, heart stopped – she couldn't be d-dead, right…?

Shouting her name, rushing forward, panic making his heart race he jumped to her side.

"AKANE!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"AKANE!"

"Hm...?"

The blue haired girl blinked slightly before she came back into the present – or would that be past? She'd exhausted herself – pushed well past where she should have pushed until her legs suddenly gave way in the middle of a kata. Hence her lying there staring at the ceiling, unmoving.

"So y-you're alright?"

Smiling lazily, endorphins still in her system from the exercise, she redirected her gaze to her fiancé. Well, what do you know – he looked really worried. Though that was rapidly being replaced by anger.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just enjoying this. Isn't this nice, hm, Ranma?"

She was back in the past. She was alive – he was alive. He was breathing, blue eyes sparkling and most importantly in one piece. Life, for the first time in a very long time, was good.

The anger faded again from his face as concern took over.

"Are you drunk?" he finally asked incredulously after a long pause.

Akane giggled.

"Nah. Just happy. What's wrong with that?"

He stared, eyes silently judging her before he finally shook his head and jumped to his feet.

"Nothing but you reek, tomboy! Eurgh! You must've been exercising something fierce..."

He gave her another questioning look mixed with worry. Unable to help herself, Akane just kept on giggling, still feeling too happy for words. Ranma was back – or, well, more like she was back. But she was with him! And that was all that mattered in the end. She'd change it all somehow. He was here- with her, worrying over her. Everything was the way it should be.

"Hey, us girls don't sweat. We glow."

Another stare from her fiancé, his voice deadpan even as his eyebrow rose slightly.

"You glow... Ri~ight... Now I_ know_ you drank something!"

Akane laughed again, feeling the euphoria slowly ebb away. Using her shaky arms she carefully pushed herself into an upright position. God, even her stomach muscles ached. Smiling wryly, the blue haired girl shook her head at herself.

"Very funny! Seriously, don't worry Ranma. I'm sure I'll be angry with you for one reason or another soon enough again."

She pushed herself to her feet, slowly, feeling the weakness and lack of support from her overworked muscles.

"HEY! Who said I was worried! I wasn't worried! Who'd be worried about such an uncute macho chick like you!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Inwardly grinning, she dismissively patted him on the back. It was fun now that she knew how to really rile him up.

"Of course you weren't, Ranma. And I would certainly never dare insinuate otherwise."

"Yeah, that's righ- HEY!" His eyes narrowed at her as he caught onto her sarcasm.

She gave him an impish smile and closed the dojo behind her, slowly making her way over to the bath. A good long soak would do her body wonders now.

Ranma was alive, she was back in time – she didn't care how or why. Not really. All that mattered is that they were together and even if it meant going through the torture of training all over again, it was all worth it. For him, her love.

Smile softening she stepped into the outer bath. Akane inhaled by accident as she took off her gi and gave a disgusted sigh. Ranma was right – she did reek. All that exercise didn't make one smell like roses after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane still hadn't quite figured out what had happened except for that the headmaster had obviously returned. Had the moxibustion-thing already happened? God, she hoped so. She didn't fancy her chances in the whirlwind again.

Dinner had passed by in a blur – there was the usual fighting, the normal hassling from their fathers about finally 'joining' the schools and the nigh irresistible urge to touch Ranma. Before she realised what happened she'd only been half-way through her meal and Ranma was no longer beside her.

Akane sighed heavily, trying to concentrate on her schoolwork so she'd have the weekend at least to unwind. Life was seemingly more complicated now than ever before. She had changed so much – too much. And she was bound to slip up at one time or another.

But what could she do? 'Hi, how did you sleep? And by the way, I'm your Akane but also sort of not. Actually, I'm from 6-odd years into the future and hey, I _know_ that you actually loved me, well, before you died that is.' Yep, great plan. She'd be in a padded cell before Kodachi or Tatewaki ever saw one and that was a truly remarkable achievement in and of itself. So telling Ranma – or anyone else –really wasn't an option.

And besides, she didn't want to force Ranma to love her just because he had done so in the future; with his stubbornness he'd probably do the exact opposite of whatever she told him anyway. Hopefully it would all develop naturally as it had last time around.

God, whatever made her think life would be easier now?

She couldn't touch Ranma, Ukyo was still in love and engaged to him, Shampoo and Cologne- well, she didn't want to think about what she wanted to do to them! Especially now that neither of them were aware or had realised the repercussions of their potential actions. And that was another point – they hadn't done anything yet, but to her, they had. Could she really punish (well, at her current skill level it would be more of an attempt to punish) them for that?

And Ranma was so hesitant to touch her, how would she go about curing him of that? She didn't want to glomp him all the time – besides, that wouldn't truly resolve anything. He didn't like Shampoo's overenthusiastic demonstrations of affection and they hadn't made him more amenable to touch in any way.

This was screwed up – here was her second chance and she had no idea how to go about it. Yawning tiredly, Akane made her way to bed, homework finished. It was remarkably easy if you'd already done it all once before. Maybe tomorrow she could find out more and figure out how to tackle the mess that was her life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the house, waking all of its inhabitants in an instant. But this time the voice had not been Ranma's; everyone was used to him waking them up due to sudden attacks or midnight visits. They didn't worry about him and usually just went back to sleep.

No, this time it was the youngest Tendo who had screamed and that made all the difference. The chaos that followed her fiancé had proven to be above her skill level on most occasions and so everyone panicked when they heard the young girl's voice issue a cry of such pain and horror.

Alarmed, grabbing the closest available weapons, the assembled Tendos and Saotomes burst into Akane's room. Everyone stood, ready to fight but slowly confusion set in.

A trembling girl sat in the corner of her bed, sobs shaking her body everyone hesitated, uncertain. There was no damage to the room which Shampoo or other enemies would've left behind, no rose petals courtesy of Kodachi nor underwear spread throughout the room which would've indicated an attack from Happosai. Instead there was just a heartbroken girl and everyone stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ranma was- was dead. She hadn't had this dream in almost three weeks. Akane had never actually seen what had happened to her almost-husband, but she had seen the remains, heard Cologne's part of the story and felt the attacks on him. Her mind was only too happy to fill in the blanks, one dream more horrifying than the next.

He'd never touch her again, kiss her again - she'd never smell that unique scent that Ranma always had in both girl and guy form ever again, she'd never feel his lips or his rough hands or his lips on her again, caressing her. He was... dead.

"Shhh... hey Akane-chan. Did you have a nightmare?"

She instantly recognised the voice – Kasumi. Her older sister had never changed, always a happy constant in her life which had been subjected to some extraordinary chaos in its time and yet she'd remained the same serene, peaceful woman throughout it all.

She launched herself at her sister, arms wrapping around her willing shoulders in an embrace, another sob making its way out of her throat. She never even noticed when the eldest Tendo gestured for their father and Genma to leave the room.

"I dreamt of... of Ranma's death..."

"Oh Akane...," her older sister tightened her hug slightly. "It's okay, he's here, see?"

To say that she was baffled at her sister's words would be an understatement. She knew Ranma wasn't here but despite that she involuntarily found her eyes following her sisters finger and found... Ranma in boxershorts and a tank top, cheeks flushed in embarrassment under her wide eyed stare but nonetheless cautiously smiling at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn't even take a second for the transition – one moment she was in her older sister's arms and the next Akane was in front of Ranma, hands hesitantly touching his face, tears still visible in her eyes. She looked so upset, so sad he couldn't believe that was the same girl that usually shouted insults at him.

Her bottom lip trembled and the next moment he found himself with his arms full of the blue haired girl. She'd thrown herself around him almost instantly, arms behind his neck, face buried in his shoulder and legs wrapped around his waist. Ranma's reaction had been instinctual more than anything – one hand beneath her thighs to keep her from sliding down and another over her back to hold her to him.

And then he froze, thought processes shocked to a standstill as his brain informed him that this was Akane – Akane! The girl who always called HIM a pervert! – in his arms. He barely noticed when Kasumi walked up to him, merely staring at the oldest Tendo helplessly, asking what it was he was supposed to be doing.

His heart ached with every sob that escaped the tomboy's throat, with every shudder that made her body tremble under his fingers, with every teardrop that landed on his shoulder. Akane was strong - she was not meant to break down like this. And not about him; though a part of him couldn't help bu felt a small rush of pleasure that she was so upset by _his _death – not Ryoga or someone else's – his.

Then Kasumi wrapped her arms around the both of them, giving Ranma a warm smile.

"Hey Akane, everything's alright. It was just a dream. See? Ranma's alive and well."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nabiki felt her heartstrings tugged as she watched Kasumi console Akane and it only took a moment before her hand joined her older sister's on Akane's back.

"Hey sis."

A sniffling, red eyed Akane looked up at her. Nabiki's heart ached looking at the horrendously upset expression on her younger sister's face.

"This one's free of charge, sis. If you ever wanna woo a guy, don't come at him teary-eyed. You look horrible!"

She quirked a smile at her and was rewarded with a choked sob that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

"Yeah, tomboy. I mean, look at me – I ain't dying any time soon, ya know. 'Sides, I'm the best martial artist out there – who is really gonna defeat me? Pah, could take 'em all in my sleep."

Nabiki felt herself relax, watching as Ranma's words seemed to finally penetrate and Akane's shoulders were soon quivering with laughter rather than tears.

"You and your ego," her voice was still tear filled but she sounded less heartbroken than before. The constricting sensation in her chest eased slightly at the happier nuances in Akane's voice.

She watched as the blue haired girl swatted her fiancé on the chest but nonetheless allowed Ranma to gently lower her to the floor, not mentioning how his hand was almost on her butt to stop her from falling. Nabiki smiled – if she wasn't such a nice sister – okay, and if she'd had a camera to hand – then this would've been perfect blackmail material; well, the straying of Ranma's hand at least.

But there were some things which were taboo – including dreaming another person's death. After their mom died, all three girls had frequent nightmares about their father or one of their siblings dying and more often than not they had ended up falling asleep together. Nabiki herself had more than her few share of these dreams. She still remembered the comforting feeling of both her sisters wrapped around her - one behind and one in front, chasing all the bad dreams and memories away with warmth and love.

As they had grown up these moments had become scarcer with all three girls adapting and maturing over the years in between. Nevertheless, their unspoken rule remained: Nightmares or night terrors were one of those things which would always go unmentioned in the household once morning dawned. As she had her fair share of them, Nabiki really didn't want to break that particular rule. Breaking it, she knew, would mean a free-for-all on her own nightmares potentially though she doubted her sisters would ever actually go that far. But the threat still remained.

Nabiki was good at absorbing information, at reading people – it was the reason she made so much money. That was also why, looking at her sister now, she could see the longing, noticed the way her hand stayed on Ranma's chest, the way he was blushing furiously under his fiancée's intense eyes and for a moment she wondered – since when had there been anything more than dislike between the two? This went beyond the physical attraction she'd clearly seen between them; this was at the very least a massive crush and quite possibly love.

"And...," Nabiki watched her younger sister attentively, curious about what she was asking, her hands still almost automatically stroking Akane's back.

"But Ranma, what if there were too many? What if you were surrounded? Would you… give up?"

"...Akane?"

Kasumi's voice was hesitant, but she was ignored entirely by the couple who only had eyes for each other to Nabiki's slight amusement. She vaguely wondered if they were aware of just how far gone they were – definitely not just a crush but head over heels in love. How come she hadn't noticed it before? Had the fights and insults really diverted her attention that much that she hadn't noticed, well, _this?_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ranma wasn't sure what he felt for the blue haired girl still in his arms but he knew one thing – he never, ever, wanted to see her cry like that again. Even in Tofu's arms she hadn't seemed this... broken.

"Hey, I'll beat any number of people coming at me.", he said lightheartedly, blue eyes focused on her face and expressions.

Akane didn't seem to calm down at his assurances – he knew he was one of the best martial artists out there but he could only assume his fiancée was worried about the potential of something like the horde of boys who used to attack her every morning. Sighing slightly, his other hand grabbed her arm – definitely a 'safe zone' to touch – and made her refocus her attentions on him.

His face was serious – he knew what she was asking and he knew what he needed to say, but he hated admitting it, especially to her.

"I promise to you that if I ever do have too many enemies and there is nothing but lost pride at stake, I _will _retreat, however momentarily. There is no dishonour if they threaten to overwhelm by numbers and not skill."

The smile she gifted him with in response to his answer was brilliant and he was vaguely aware of his heart rate increasing exponentially with every second she kept looking at him like that and that his cheeks must be dark red by now. For just a moment he wondered why neither Ukyo nor Shampoo ever made him feel like that before the thought disappeared as fast as it had come, mind blank as his fiancées smile continued to dazzle him.

"Thank you, Ranma." Akane's voice was soft and he found himself stuttering in response.

"Ah... 's okay."

He suddenly felt hyperaware of the two sisters on either side, smiling with amusement at them both and his blush darkened in response. Before he could stop himself he blurted out words intent on stopping his own embarrassment but they also caused the smile on Akane's face to disappear and his heart sank.

"Wow, Nabiki was right. You really _are _uncute when you cry. I mean, isn't that meant to make you more feminine or something? But you really look like a drowned rat when you cry. You'll never get a husband looking like that!"

He watched as his fiancée's eyes widened shortly before narrowing, anger taking over.

"Pah, I bet I could get any guy I wanted."

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah. And don't think I didn't feel where your hands were, per- Jerk!"

Ranma blinked slightly – had Akane really just stopped herself from using the pervert-insult? How... odd. That was one she used with just as much frequency as he used the tomboy one.

"Hey! I was just making sure you didn't fall with your fat thighs and everything! 'sides, I didn't hear you complaining!"

"Yeah? Well, that's because you were being nice for once!"

And that comment short-circuited something in his brain. Was she- Was Akane of all people really saying what he thought she was? It was okay to touch her as long as he was being nice?

It took a very long moment before he was able to regain motor-neural control over his body, choosing to ignore the last comment. Still he pitched his tone of voice as conciliatory, not eager to unleash another fight or make her cry again.

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe- maybe you should just stop crying or something..."

He flushed dully and saw an answering blush spread across her cheeks before she smiled warmly at him. Obviously Akane had for once understood his unspoken words - he really hated to see her cry.

"Ranma..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, guys, as sickly sweet as this is to watch – shall we try to get some more sleep? It's two a.m. and I for one would like a couple more hours before I get up.", Nabiki yawned widely.

The youngest Tendo nodded before looking up at her sisters in askance.

"Would you...?"

"Of course."

"Sure."

Ranma simply looked confused, to Nabiki's amusement at the unvoiced question from his fiancée and their own quick responses to it.

"Well, I'll just get back to bed then," he gave Akane another glance but to his surprise Kasumi's hand on his arm paused him.

"Now Ranma, that's not very nice."

"Huh?"came his intellectual response.

Nabiki smirked, watching the spectacle unfold. She knew what was coming – whenever there was a nightmare like this they usually made it a point to sleep next to the person they'd dreamt of dying, mostly simply as reassurance that they were alive and well. But so far it had always been one of the sister or their daddy – this put a whole new spin on the thing.

And to be fair, she was kind of curious now about how this night would go with the attraction between the engaged couple. She'd never really even contemplated her sister actually falling in love with the guy; she'd always been adamant that she hated boys. Nabiki hadn't even given a second thought to the mere possibility of her falling in love with a boy that insulted not only her body but also the thing her younger sister was most proud of; her martial art skills. And she insulted him right back even retaliating with violence when she was too upset or he'd managed to find a particularly sensitive issue to tease her about. The mere thought that these two could love each other had seemed highly improbable and she'd never even taken that into consideration.

"Please get your futon, Ranma. We will all be sleeping in the family room."

Kasumi yawned slightly but simply pushed Ranma out of the room while he was still dumbstruck and not argumentative – not that there was ever much point in arguing with the oldest sister. Nabiki smirked slightly at the boy's expression as she walked to her own room, grabbing the spare futon out from underneath her bed that she hadn't used in years.

Oddly enough, everything still felt familiar as she grabbed her duvet and pillows and dragged everything downstairs. As usual, Kasumi had somehow managed to grab all her things, come down before either of them and cleared sufficient space for the four of them. She still wasn't sure just _how _she did that.

Ranma stood cautiously at the bottom of the stairs, looking as they set themselves up, uncertainty and tension in every line of his body.

"Wha-What's happening?"

He sounded confused but Akane, coming down behind him, started explaining before Nabiki could charge him for it. Damn her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It's a rule. You don't talk about the nightmare once it's morning and if it's still middle of the night then all of us get together for the rest of the night, well, us plus whoever d-died in the dreams. Usually this would've been daddy. Are you- Are you okay with this?"

He was blushing but nodded and felt his heart racing when once again when Akane beamed at him. He didn't know what it was but whenever she smiled it seemed to transform her into the singular most important and gorgeous person in the universe. His mouth felt suddenly dry and he couldn't help but stare at her, speechless.

He only realised he'd been spellbound when she turned away to set up her own futon. Ranma barely suppressed a groan – he must've looked like a fool standing there. Why was she not having this sort of reaction to him? And why didn't he react like this when the other girls did something? Especially when he considered how often Shampoo had been naked or half-naked around him. Shouldn't that be far more attractive than a simple smile?

Obviously not he admitted to himself with a wry smile while stepping further into the room.

"Now Ranma," Kasumi took his futon out of his hands and put it next to Akane's. "You are not married and this is for Akane's peace of mind. You will remain on your own futon."

He blushed darkly.

"H-Hey! Why would I ever want to do anything with such an uncute, flat-chested tomboy that's built like a brick!"

Brown eyes flashed at him in anger as his fiancée stepped up close to him again.

"YOU! I'm asking you for a favour – I've... I'm...," Akane gritted her teeth. "Ranma, I trust you not to want to touch your uncute fiancée. Now, will you please shut up and stop insulting me so we can get some sleep? If you really don't want to be here you can go back up. Kasumi and Nabiki will stay here with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane suppressed a smirk, keeping her angry facade. His words hurt a lot less knowing that he did indeed very much like the 'flat-chested' tomboy; in fact, at some point in the future – hopefully not too far away – he'd be quite hard pressed to keep his hands to himself at all.

Her nightmare had shaken her she was readily admitting that much. To then suddenly remember where – or more precisely when – she was had been a shock. She didn't want to pressure him but having him at her side for the night would be a huge relief – she'd missed him so much in the last two years living without him.

"Nah, 's okay. I'll watch over you."

Ranma was fidgeting, nervous and it wasn't hard to see that this was as close to an apology as she'd get from him tonight. Allowing the anger to slip away she gave him a happy smile in gratitude. She honestly hadn't been sure what his decision at this point would be.

"Thank you, Ranma."

He nodded before sending a cautious glance upstairs and it finally clicked with Akane – the other reason why he was so nervous.

"Sorry, did I forget to mention that Kasumi always wakes up before everyone else in the household? And that we'll be clear and out of here before either of our fathers wake up...?"

Ranma chuckled slightly and gave her a short nod of appreciation for her words.

"What, don't fancy marrying that hunk just now, Akane?" Nabiki muttered from her futon beside Kasumi's.

"Funnily enough, Onee-chan, no. You must have not heard me these last few months when I said I don't want to be forced into an arranged marriage. I would only ever marry someone I love."

"Ah, my sister the romantic."

"Still better than my sister the manipulative bitch."

Both Nabiki and Akane laughed after a moment of silence.

"Touché."

Ranma stared at both of them as if they had gone insane – though as far as he was concerned they probably had.

"Thank you again for staying here with me."

Both her sisters simply waved Akane off, crawling under their respective duvets. Nabiki was on the far right, next to her was Kasumi, and then herself followed by Ranma on her other side.

"Sweet dreams, everyone."

Akane could feel Kasumi's hand gently resting on her shoulder and relaxed. Maybe this wasn't too bad. She wasn't alone anymore. And she might actually be able to get some more sleep tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ranma slowly drifted back into the world of wakefulness. For the first time since he could remember he didn't feel tired, hassled or like he was in danger of another morning attack from his pop. No, for once he felt… content – that's the word. Just content, as if for once everything in the world was the way it was meant to be. He didn't want to give this feeling up for anything.

Unfortunately, the tapping on his shoulder was getting rather insistent. Ranma blinked blearily up in confusion and realised the person bent over him was Kasumi – she chuckled at his obvious sleepiness and he found himself frowning, still hazy as to what was going on.

"And how did you sleep, Ranma?"

Her smile was mischievous but he wasn't quite awake enough to register why.

"Actually... surprisingly well. I don't think I've felt this good in, well, ever."

Kasumi blushed and giggled and he heard Nabiki's drawl from behind her older sister, her somehow ever-present camera in hand.

"Yeah, not so surprising after all, lover boy."

Ranma blinked and stared but it took him another second to assimilate why both girls were laughing and what they meant by 'lover boy'. He was lying on his back with Akane draped across him – and with a start he was awake remarkably quickly, eyes wide as he took in the position he now found himself in.

Akane's head was lying on his shoulder, her leg draped at a right angle across his hips and her left hand had somehow found her way under his tank top and was calmly lying on his chest. Just in that moment she nuzzled closer to him, her soft breasts half on his torso, half pressed against his side. He'd never felt both pleasure and fear, cold and hot simultaneously rushing through him quite like that. Ranma felt his face heating up and he looked pleadingly at the other two sisters.

"Kasumi, I swear, I wasn't aware of moving throughout the night! You have to believe me!"

She'd kill him for doing this to Akane – especially with both her sisters in the room. And good god, that girl's grip was tight. He'd tried to gently extract himself from her but she'd simply forced him back down onto the futon, mumbling something unintelligibly against his shoulder.

"It's okay, lover boy, _you _didn't move. My sister on the other hand found herself a new cushion...," Nabiki paused momentarily, before adding after another thoughtful look at Akane, "you know, I think she really is an octopus, look at that!"

Even more frightened now, Ranma renewed his efforts. He knew it didn't really matter whether it was Akane who'd crawled into his futon or him into hers - he would be blamed for it either way. And once she woke up she'd be accusing him of being a pervert - trouble was, at the moment he couldn't precisely deny just how much he actually enjoyed holding her like this and having her pressed against him.

"Ha ha. Very funny! Now help me - she'll kill me if she wakes up like this!"

Not to mention what her hand on his naked skin was doing to him, her hot breath on him and the feel of her soft curves weren't helping either. It was getting harder and harder to breathe normally. A part of him enjoyed this position – it was so unlike the way it had felt with Shampoo. This felt... almost natural... in a very exciting way. And looking at her face wasn't helping any – she looked the same he supposed he had before he'd been woken up by Kasumi. Happy, content, relaxed - like all was right with the world. As if this was the one place on earth she really wanted to be - with him.

He glanced at both sisters but even with them watching, he couldn't suppress the sensations from his body, the pleasure and enjoyment he got from Akane being this close to him. Grimly he imagined Cologne in a bikini and barely stopped himself from shuddering in disgust at that particular image; but at least it was guaranteed success even in as precarious a situation as this one.

It calmed him down sufficiently to not have his body show a more embarrassing response to having his fiancée pressed tightly against him like that. That was one thing he couldn't talk his way out of – especially not under the watchful eyes of her two sisters hovering above them.

"What do you think we've been trying to do?" Nabiki gesticulated to her sister's happy face before sighing resignedly. "Well, at least it looks like she's getting some good sleep from it."

"But this really isn't proper."

The middle sister rolled her eyes at Kasumi's words before pointing to the empty futon next to Ranma's.

"But look – Akane's pillow and duvet are still clearly over there. If anything, she's the one taking advantage of her poor fiancé." With a wicked smirk directed at him she added "Luckily for her it doesn't look like he minds."

"Nabiki!"

The middle sister simply laughed before shaking her head, a new idea having occurred to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I have to see if she notices this..."

Ranma stared after Nabiki, dreading whatever she'd come up with now; as it turned out, he was right to suspect her of yet another ploy. Before he could even realise what exactly she was up to she'd splashed him with cold water - Akane only received a few drops on her face and simply frowned slightly before snuggling closer again and tightening her hold on him.

He stared – he couldn't help it. He was now in his cursed form, yet all his fiancée had done was move her head slightly to adjust for the different stature. Her leg was still comfortably draped over his waist and the hand she'd had on his previously flat chest had adjusted to engulf his breast – but otherwise she'd refused to budge an inch or drift into the waking world.

"Oh my."

Even Nabiki stared, speechless. And then Akane pulled his female body closer to her, snuggling into his neck, her voice full of satisfaction and happiness when she said his name.

"Ranma..."

"Huh... who would've thought...", Nabiki said, still staring at the two women. Ranma glared at her, soprano voice clearly annoyed as he looked at the two sisters, even though inwardly he couldn't believe it either. Akane had taken no note at all of the change in bodies or that he was now a she and on top of all that she'd also said his name with a timbre in her voice that sent pleasant tingles down his spine.

"You've been no use – we need to wake her up!"

"Well, we've tried. Why don't_ you_ try?"

The redhead's glare hardened and the message was clear – he knew Nabiki at the very least was up to something even if he wasn't quite certain what that was. With a sigh and a dreaded look at the stairs he turned to his fiancée. She did look rather cute, snuggled up to him, happy smile on her face.

Unfortunately, if either of their fathers found them like this, they'd be married before either had time to blink. Left with no choice he hesitantly stroked the arm she had on his breast gently.

"Hey, 'kane... C'mmon, wake up."

"Hmmm... Five more minutes, Ranma..."

Well, at least she definitely knew it was him and wasn't dreaming about Ryoga or someone else. That was good, right? He flushed slightly. And she looked so unbelievably content – his heart sped up. Did he make her feel like that? The same way he'd felt before he'd woken up?

"Nah, need to get up now. C'mmon, you're heavy. 'sides, it's Saturday - no school."

He watched her frown and brown eyes blinked at him blearily.

"School?"

Her voice was questioning and confused and she gave him a puzzled frown, nose scrunching up slightly. And not for the first time that day, Ranma realised his fiancée really was extraordinarily attractive and charming – without even trying.

"Yep."

Now she was pouting.

"Can't I just go back to sleep?"

As if to demonstrate her wishes, Akane's head dropped back onto his shoulders and her hand squeezed Ranma's breast slightly in the process, causing his eyes to open widely, blush staining his cheeks. Nabiki looked like she was barely suppressing her laughter but it was Kasumi who started giggling first.

And that caused Akane's head to shoot up and stare at both her sisters before she took in her surroundings.

"...Oh Fuck..."

Her head whirled around to him and her entire face seemed to blush when she realised not only where her hand was but that her leg was still draped over him and that in her haste she'd basically managed to rub her nether regions against him.

He flushed an even darker colour, eyes closed as he half-expected her to lash out at him in anger. But his fiancée, always taking the greatest of pleasures in making him feel disjointed and confused, took the route he didn't expect; she apologised.

"Ah... I'm so sorry, Ranma."

Carefully, Akane opened her hand wide and tried to extract her hand but when she accidentally rubbed his nipple in her manoeuvre, he gasped in both surprise and unexpected pleasure. Both their faces blushed an even darker shade and Ranma repeatedly thanked whatever gods that her sisters were still laughing loudly enough to have missed the byplay. Even more cautiously than before, his fiancée took her hand out from under his shirt and lifted her leg to sit down beside him.

"'s okay, I guess. I mean, you were asleep and all..." he finally ventured, having regained control of his breathing. The loss of her body on his and the feelings she managed to evoke in him took him aback.

Instead of scrambling away like he'd expected her to, she simply stretched languidly next to him, showing off a delectable – and incredibly distracting – stretch of bare skin on her stomach when her top lifted up with her movements ever so slightly.

He couldn't help but keep staring as Akane's hand ran through her own hair, ruffling it even further and making her look incredibly appealing. Ranma, unable to take his eyes of his fiancée, stared at her in undisguised fascination. He blamed it on lack of sleep.

Shampoo had tried to sleep in his bed before and he'd even seen Ukyo practically topless but neither girl had ever evoked this desire in him, this need to keep looking - studying - her until he memorized everything there was to know about Akane.

Even just innocently stretching and sitting beside him she was the most mesmerizing person in the world - both Ukyo and Shampoo could be in the same room right now, stark naked and he doubted he'd be able to tear his eyes off Akane for even a second. But he didn't know what that meant - why was the tomboy of all people taking up his attention that much? Why was she more interesting and desirable to him than his arguably sexier and cuter fiancées?

Finally, he blinked and realised that Kasumi and Nabiki were on the stairs with their futons already and Akane was looking at him expectantly - and all Ranma had been doing was staring at her.

Flushing bright red he avoided any further eye contact before quietly grabbing his futon and going back to his room. He could sense Akane following him on the way up but luckily she didn't try to initiate any conversation, simply mutely going back to her own room to - presumably - stow the futon away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ranma wasn't sure what to make of last night – or this morning for that matter. His feelings were all over the place.

Shaking his head he dealt with the sudden influx of emotions the way he always dealt with anything that wasn't anger; he suppressed it and kicked his pop awake, yearning for the distraction a morning spar with him would bring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Saotome, how did you break the tub again?" Soun looked incredulous as he stared at his long time friend.

"It's all the boy's fault." came the predictable response from the old man as his chopsticks dipped into his son's food bowls with lightning speed. Ranma blocked it with the ease of experience, frowning at his father.

"Ha! You started it, pop! Don't try and blame this one on me!"

Akane chuckled slightly. Some things never changed.

"It's okay. We can enjoy the hot public baths today - luckily for us it's a Saturday.", Kasumi smiled warmly at everyone.

That was a good point – she could see if Yuka and Sayuri were available. They had always been fantastic friends and she missed them; even if she didn't quite know what was going on she would enjoy just being able to chat about anything and everything with her friends without the additional pressure of having to watch her every word.

"I have wanted to go for a while now anyway. Maybe Sayuri and Yuka could come as well; I'll give them a call after breakfast."

Suddenly a shout rang out from behind her, giving Akane sufficient advance warning to dispatch the intruder in time.

"Public baths! Well done, Saotome! TAKE ME WITH YOU, AKAN-"

Without even looking up from her breakfast and with the ease of practice, the youngest Tendo fended off Happosai and smashed him into the ground.

The rest of the table just sighed in resignation at the latest repairs that would need to be done now in addition to fixing the furo before talking about their plans for the weekend again. Just another normal morning with the Tendos and Saotomes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane smiled at her best friends, relaxed as she slowly soaped herself. Their discussion about boys were interrupted, ironically, by loud noises from the men's section of the hot baths.

Gong.

D-Kong.

Toom.

Bwoom.

Huh... Why did all this seem strangely familiar?

"Men certainly are noisy!", Yuka said with a huff from her left side. Akane giggled slightly in response but was interrupted by a very familiar sound from behind her.

Myew.

Eyes narrowed the blue haired girl whirled around, heart racing as she tried to calm herself - surely not?

A purple haired cat confidently strode up to her.

Teeth gritted, eyes narrowed in hate and hands fisted she stared at the cursed form of Shampoo. There was no way she'd be able to restrain herself when faced with the overly confident, lovesick version of the Amazon. As always when in a big battle her entire vision and focus narrowed in onto the cat that now had the audacity to take the seat next to her. Akane's hands automatically clenched around the nearest available weapon unable to control the sheer rage and fury roaring within her, blood singing with hate, adrenaline surging as her system prepared for battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, what do you think?


	3. The inherent danger of public baths

As always - big thanks to **pursemonger** my fabulous beta reader! Have a look at her stories! They're brilliant!

One update for this fanfic and thank you, everyone, for your reviews and encouragements! In case you haven't figured it out yet this takes place during the Waterproof Soap Arc! Go **Compucles **for figuring it out (Cyber Cookies are all I can offer as a reward unfortunately!)!

**As usual this is dedicated to my reviewers:**

**KaikiH, Aeryn Rallas, Flameraven1, caia-chan, linkgold64, Janissa, Wingman0, BlooTaco, Compucles**, **The Keeper of Worlds**

THANK YOU! For taking the time to let me know what you liked or didn't like. You're the reason there is already another chapter uploaded for you.

And no, I've not forgotten about the other ones. My plot bunny was just very insistent that I write this one up first.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yuka frowned slightly when Akane turned away. Something wasn't right. Her best friend was different somehow. She couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that was different, but there was something… not right.

First off, she'd supposedly been sick yesterday and yet she'd obviously been practicing martial arts instead. The bruises on her hip and her frequent massaging motions on her muscles were by now very familiar and indicative of recent exercise rather than old injuries.

Still Ranma had come to school alone, which was odd in and of itself. The boy would take any chance he could to skip out on school and had there been a challenge he wouldn't have hesitated for a moment. She didn't know him very well beyond what Akane had told her and the few spars at school, but that much was obvious even to her.

Then it had become even more confusing - Ranma had actually asked her and Sayuri for their notes so he could pass them onto their friend. Yuka hadn't had a chance to talk to him today as he'd been walking behind her, Sayuri and Akane while bickering with his father.

Her best friend was acting all out of sorts. Akane kept falling into odd silences, staring at her and Sayuri oddly as if she hadn't seen them in a long time. And then out of the blue she would ask them questions about weird things like a hurricane on school grounds, a chart with pressure points, and Kuno having a sword that fulfilled wishes. Yuka freely admitted she had no idea what her friend was going on about and to her seemingly never-ending surprise, Akane had actually cursed at those news! Her friend barely ever cursed!

Moreover, at times she seemed to suddenly mature and be calm and serene, almost melancholic when she got lost in thought. It was incredibly puzzling and she was half-tempted to ask Ranma if he knew anything about her change in behavior, except that he wasn't really the most observant of people. Somehow it almost felt as if she was betraying Akane's confidence if she were to do that.

Yuka exchanged a quick glance with Sayuri before both looked at the blue haired girl whose eyes were fixed on the wall separating them from the men but seemed to not register anything. Then suddenly a lot of noises came from the men's section and Yuka dismissed her worries for the time being.

"Men are certainly noisy!" Huffing slightly, she looked over at her best friend who seemed to return to the present and giggled in response to her words.

For a moment she felt almost relieved, as if maybe this had been more her imagination than anything else to actually fret about, but then the smile on Akane's face froze and disappeared the same instant they all heard a cat meowing.

Argh no! Not Ranma, surely? She vividly remembered the one time he'd turned cat and started making those noises. Almost immediately her hands grabbed for her towel before she actually turned around to look and halted.

It was a cat - but that's all it was. With weird fur colour for sure but in Nerima you wouldn't even spare such small oddities a second glance.

Relaxing, smiling, she looked back to Akane; her smile dropped before it ever really had time to appear.

The female martial artist was looking at the cat with _hate_ - hate! An emotion Akane had never seemed to feel, not even for the ever annoying Kuno or the horde of boys attacking her in the mornings. There was no mistaking the sudden chill coming from her, the way her shoulders had tensed and her eyes had narrowed. Yuka also noticed the subtle moves the blue haired girl had made to put herself between her best friends and the cat. Unwittingly, she gulped, a shiver running down her spine.

Yuka and Akane had been friends almost since day one at Furinkan High. She wasn't sure what it was but there was definitely something to that girl. Despite all the boys falling at her feet, none of the girls were ever really jealous or mean to Akane and no, that was unrelated to her skills in martial arts. There was just something about her, something that drew people to her. She was kind, helpful, gracious, protective, caring, honest, supportive and always good for a laugh.

On the other hand she loved martial arts with a blazing passion that was unrivalled by anything else and yet she was extraordinarily clumsy at the oddest times. No one had actually taken Akane seriously as a martial artist - they underestimated her in the way men often undermined women in physical sports. But then in her first week at high school she'd managed to put their gym teacher to the ground when they had learnt basic self-defense.

It was shortly after that when boys started challenging her for dates, though back then it had been an odd occurrence and always in a one-on-one duel after school. Presumably that was what had inspired Tatewaki Kuno to issue his stupid challenge to every guy in school and caused them to attack her friend en masse.

And then there was the hard way in which both Sayuri and Yuka had learnt not to accept any of the bentos Akane had lovingly prepared for them; after the first three times of spending their lunch break over the toilet they had appreciated that it wasn't simply a one off bad luck cooking disaster but that this was honestly her best effort at cooking something edible.

Akane always tried her best to be a good friend to both of them and be there for them when they needed her. They had become incredibly close over the months, sharing their thoughts and feelings and going away on weekend trips together.

Now though, Yuka could honestly say that for the first time in her life she could see why some of the boys that faced her on a daily basis sometimes quivered when she looked at them in the hallways.

Looking at her now, Akane scared her- _her!_ Her best friend. She knew that technically she had nothing to worry about, that Akane would never do anything to hurt her, but there was something primal in her friend that still sent her nerves on edge and made her cringe away slightly before she could stop herself.

And then the cat upended one of the hot water buckets over herself and turned into Shampoo, a beautiful young woman with purple hair and also notably one of Ranma's other fiancées. Actually, thinking about it now, she did recall Akane telling them about the Jusenkyo curse that affected the other girl.

"Shampoo…" Gradually, Yuka relaxed again - this was someone who was after Ranma, not after them.

To her surprise, Akane only seemed to be getting more livid with every second she spent in the Amazons presence. Should she interfere, Yuka wondered hesitantly, staring at the two female artists.

But even she would never have expected what happened next.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Akane glared at the Amazon as the naked Shampoo replaced the cat. Unlike the future version this one still had her long tresses of purple hair, no scar across her face, no trace of the loss and understanding she'd experienced in her later years. This Shampoo was arrogant, self-confident and… innocent.

Over the years of living on her own and being exposed to the less savoury aspects of humanity she'd learned how to turn everything into a weapon. So she wasn't too surprised at the realization she'd subconsciously already separated the small metal strip from the bucket at her feet and was currently clenching it in her hands - it wasn't very good as a weapon in itself but could easily be used for restraining and for augmenting the force of her punches and increasing the damage.

It was hard to remember that Shampoo technically hadn't done anything; this woman was the entire reason she had lost Ranma, had lost her life, her future, her everything. And a part of her wanted to teach this Shampoo the real meaning of pain, the same one her future version had learned the hard way.

Blissfully ignorant of the violent thoughts the youngest Tendo was having, the purple haired girl stretched languidly, showing off her assets and giving her rival a self-satisfied smirk. Akane's hand around the metal strip tightened and she felt the material bend under her fingers. Remember, she told herself through clenched teeth, this Shampoo hasn't done anything. Yet.

But it didn't help.

The metal in her hands broke under the pressure and snapped her slightly out of it. Akane released some of her tension in a small sigh - Ranma was still here. She was not alone anymore and she'd never been someone for mindless revenge. It just bothered her that this Amazon was daring enough to sit next to her, practically purring in pleasure, unrepentant and most importantly unaware of the heartbreak she could potentially inflict on herself and others in the future.

"Mmm. Shampoo never be cat again."

Frowning, Akane stared at the other girl, control slowly gaining the upper hand over her temper and with it returned the thoughts. This all seemed so familiar… too familiar. It definitely rang a bell but for the life of her she couldn't quite place… hold on, soap? Wasn't there something about… a date and soap…?

Before the youngest Tendo had time to try and recall more, Shampoo pointed her finger at her, clearly challenging the other fiancée.

"Start today, Ranma belong Shampoo."

At this moment in time there was nothing worse the Amazon could've said; though to be fair she was still completely unaware of the effect of her words but that only lasted for another millisecond. Akane found rational thought leaving her again as utter rage and hate filled her, replacing the tight control she'd had up until that point. That- that _bitch!_ She had married Ranma, the man who was meant to be her husband and then killed him; what more did she want?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before the purple haired girl had time to blink, her body was thrown against the wall, the loud thrumming noise echoing wildly even as slender hands wrapped themselves around her neck and lifted her feet off the floor. Unfortunately, this spoke not of the superior skill of the youngest Tendo, rather it spoke of the magnitude of surprise that had taken Shampoo aback and stopped her from fending off the unexpected attack.

The 'violent girl' was usually only physically attacking her fiancé and not his other fiancées. To actually have her launch into such an outright attack without much provocation was unusual and surprising. Hence why the Amazon had been momentarily overpowered and now found herself in a startlingly vulnerable position.

Shampoo's back hurt from the impact, she was naked and without access to her usual weapons. It took her another moment before her head ever processed that this was Akane Tendo attacking her.

"_What are you talking about?" _The girl's voice was menacing and quiet, almost threatening in its tone.

For the first time that day she met the eyes of the blue haired girl. Brown eyes usually filled with jealousy, pain or laughter, were now blank with hatred and rage. There was no forgiveness; only death. The only time Shampoo had ever seen a similar expression had been shortly before one of the other Amazons had killed an outsider who'd stupidly attempted to rape her.

She knew she could take the other girl in terms of skills but in this state she might actually prove a challenge; no fear of death or injury made for a frightening opponent.

"Shampoo have waterproof soap. You wash with this, you get all wet and still you **no change**. Shampoo no be cat! So Ranma no hate Shampoo!"

She wasn't sure if this was her wisest move, but figured it might stun the other girl long enough to launch a counter attack.

To her surprise Akane's lips twitched and suddenly she burst into outright laughter. The youngest Tendo loosened her hold on her neck, allowing the Amazon to catch herself - barely - before she could hit the ground and Akane stepped back. Shampoo rubbed her tender neck, eyes warily fixed on the blue haired girl.

"Oh god. That's a good one. Ranma rejected you way before you ever _had_ the curse, stupid."

Eyes narrowing, Shampoo was about to use the soap and show the other girl just how much her fiancé wouldn't reject her beautiful body when the soap suddenly slipped through her hands and flew over the separation barrier into the men's bath.

"But who knows? Maybe he actually likes morons." Akane's voice was deadpan as she returned to washing herself, effectively dismissing the Amazon as a threat. Shampoo hesitated for a moment - soap or pride?

Decision made, she stepped up to the other girl, intent on re-issuing the kiss of death for the insults and the attack when the Tendo girl, not quite as oblivious as Shampoo had thought her to be, upended a bucket over the purple haired girl. Suddenly drowned in cold water and turned into a cat she hissed furiously, twisting and claws swiping madly in the tight hands of Akane; at her rival's mercy once more. Shampoo reminded herself not to ever underestimate the other girl in such a fashion again when the girl raised her voice.

"HEY! RANMA!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ranma had heard a loud thumping noise from the women's side of the public bath and frowned slightly. Akane would yell if she needed him right? Nevertheless, he automatically sought out the nearest source of cold water, just in case he needed to run over to the women's section and save his fiancée once more.

Ryoga had paused as well in his attack and was currently staring over at the barrier. After a moment's pause where both rivals could only make out continued murmuring, they restarted their fight. To Ranma's eternal embarrassment he slipped on a bar of soap just as he was teasing his rival and managed to land, head first, on the cold tiles.

It took him another few seconds to regain his mental faculties, blackness having temporarily overtaken his consciousness. It was Akane's voice that brought him back to reality as he rubbed his sore head.

"HEY! RANMA!"

He blinked curiously but decided to simply reply at first. After all she didn't sound like she was frightened. Maybe she was back to normal - not the stiflingly polite, nice version of the last few days - and was picking a fight with him?

"YO! TOMBOY!"

Intrigued in spite of himself he ignored Ryoga's blush and his rival's frenzied hands fiddling with what he could only presume was a love letter addressed to his fiancée.

"YOU LOST ONE OF YOUR FIANCÉES!" Taken aback, Ranma stared at the wall in shock. He'd _what_?

"_WHAT_?"

"CAT AIR EXPRESS! 5 SECONDS TO LANDING!"

Puzzled the pigtailed youth stared at the wall before realization set in. Shampoo was both his fiancée and a cat.

Before Ryoga even had time to blink, Ranma had vaulted over his head and was safely back in the changing rooms. Enough was enough - lost boy, fights with his dad and now a cat. Time to go home and call it quits for the day.

And maybe he should thank his fiancée for warning him later - cats were truly horror. Ranma heard a loud meow only moments later and firmly locked the door to the baths as he took the time to change back into his normal clothes. What a mess. Not even a quiet bath was possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sayuri gawped. Yuka was no better off. Akane laughed, posture relaxed and eyes twinkling when she watched the spot where Shampoo had sailed over the barrier - having heard a loud clanging noise from a closing door mere seconds earlier.

"Aah, that felt good."

"You- You just…"

"Yep. Should've done it sooner, to be honest."

"Bu-But… Shampoo's stronger than you!"

Akane smiled slightly.

"I know. She is now. I'm training. It'll be a while yet before I can match her but don't worry. She's more concerned about the soap just now than me."

"I'm not so sure about that." Sayuri frowned at Akane's blasé statement. Shampoo had looked really incensed and she seemed to take her pride rather seriously. Maybe they should tell Ranma what happened? Usually they wouldn't go behind Akane's back like this but he was the only one who could defeat Shampoo.

Exchanging a glance with Yuka they came to an understanding. On Monday, at school, they'd have a small chat with Ranma - hopefully that was soon enough.

Smiling at the blue-haired girl, Sayuri shrugged slightly and decided to simply relax and enjoy their remaining time in the hot baths.

"This is sooo nice."

"Mmmm…"

All three girls relaxed and closed their eyes, enjoying the soothing heat and ignoring the weird looks they were still receiving from the people not used to the chaotic nature of Nerima's martial artists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night fell over the Tendo dojo. Akane was chatting with Nabiki, brushing her hair, discussing what the latest twist on their favourite soap opera could possibly mean for its characters.

"So, I think Ichiro is cheating on Ayane with Keiko and since we know she's pregnant, I'm certain he's the daddy. So of course he will, in the end, decide on Keiko, because she is the mother of his future children," sucking on her lollipop Nabiki stared at her younger sister, TV blaring in the background, forgotten the moment their show was over.

"But you don't know that. There's no proof that Keiko's child is Ichiro's and besides, Ayane is her friend. She wouldn't do that to her - and look at the love between Ayane and Ichiro. They're clearly made for each other."

"Pah, what's love got to do with it? Please don't tell me anything like 'they're destined to be together' or any other romantic crap. You're far too idealistic, sis. It's simple, just face reality; Keiko has got more to hold over him so that's who he'll choose. Love is just something guys say to get stupid girls like Ayane-what's-her-name to sleep with them."

Akane frowned at her sister but before she could push her argument, Ranma landed face down beside her, body twitching and large lump on the back of his head. His father sat down next to the boy's prone body, holding onto the pigtail and handing her a letter.

"A letter for me?" Akane looked at him puzzled. There was a nice heart on the envelope - a love letter? Genma merely nodded in reply.

"I found it at the bath house."

Before her hands could close around the letter, Ranma woke up and grabbed it out of his father's hands in front of her.

"What a clown. Couldn't even remember the letter he wrote to you."

And in that moment she remembered - the letter. It was from Ryoga! And Ranma, obviously in another fit of jealousy and unrestrained curiousity opened the envelope and started reading it out loud. Akane leaned back, eyes closed and sighed slightly.

"Aren't you gonna stop him from reading your letter?" Nabiki asked curiously, staring at her sister in surprise for the lack of reaction to this latest invasion of privacy.

Shrugging gently the youngest Tendo gestured to her fiancé.

"If he doesn't read it now he'll be obsessed with it. 'sides, it doesn't really matter, does it? If it's lying around a bath house and hasn't even been handed to me it can't be _that_ private."

Nabiki smirked.

"Maybe it's from Kuno about all the sleepless nights he's had thinking about you and the pigtailed girl - or maybe the both of you together."

Akane shuddered in disgust.

"Yuck. You're revolting, sis. If Kuno does dream about that I hope to god I'll never find out. Yuck! Perverted boy; he better hope I never find out about any such thing! God, now I'm bound to have more nightmares now. Double Yuck! Thank you very much, sis!"

The smirk on her sister's face simply widened in response.

Suddenly, Ryoga appeared as if out of nowhere, hitting Ranma on the head just as he was in the middle of reading Akane's letter. Aforementioned girl simply watched, almost bored by now of the rather typical spectacle unfolding in front of her eyes.

"I have tolerated your interference long enough! This is the last time your nose pokes into my affairs."

Ryoga cracked his hands, looking at Ranma who was taking great pleasure in holding out the envelope to him tauntingly.

"But you were gonna give it to her anyway, right?"

Attempting to look surprised, Akane gazed at the lost boy.

"Oh Ryoga, you came all the way here to give me a letter? You really shouldn't have. Thank you!"

Amused she watched as Ryoga blushed and immediately flew into an attack which Ranma easily evaded. He put his foot in his rival's path and the lost boy promptly flew through the air and was headed straight for the pool.

She still found it hard to fathom just how high her fiancé's speed was even now; he literally saw the other boy heading for the pond, ran after him and managed to catch Ryoga, if barely, with one hand outstretched and holding him just above the pond. But then the stone beneath Ranma gave way and both boys fell into the cold water.

She watched as the lost boy didn't turn into the familiar pig but instead remained human while her fiancé's curse turned him into a beautiful red-headed girl. To her amusement Ranma was truly puzzled by the lack of transformation and seemed to think it related to Ryoga's refusal to acknowledge he was wet. She giggled slightly when her fiancé started a one sided water fight with the other boy but quieted when Ryoga looked up at her decisively.

"Darling Akane", she winced slightly at the pet name. Darling? Really? "Read that letter to know my heart. I shall return!"

With a casual wave of his hand the lost boy disappeared. Just like first time around, the letter was too wet to read any of the text but the youngest Tendo was not quite as oblivious as she had been the last time. She was well aware that this was probably a love letter to her (as if the heart on the envelope hadn't been a dead giveaway of that).

Sighing in resignation Akane went to the kitchen to boil some water and grab a towel. Ranma was still refusing to leave the pond, confused as he stared after his rival, repeating the word 'Why?!' endlessly.

With the warm water - she'd made sure it wasn't too hot for her fiancé - she returned to the pond and knelt down to be on eye level with the redhead.

"Hey, Ranma. You'll catch a cold if you keep staying there."

The response was immediate and expected.

"Pah! I don't catch colds. I never get ill!"

Chuckling slightly she showed him the hot water and towel, cocking her head sideways as she gave Ranma a warm smile.

"C'mon, do it for me. I feel cold just looking at you."

As anticipated her fiancé froze and a slight blush stained his cheeks before he stepped out of the cold water in his cursed form, avoiding her eyes.

"Fine, but I'm not doing it for you or nothing."

She poured the warm water of him and watched her fiancé grow taller, more muscular, breast shrinking even as his chest expanded and his hair turned black. Akane's smile broadened into a teasing grin as she replied.

"Of course you're not."

Handing him a towel she walked back to the family room, intent on continuing her discussion with Nabiki and not giving Ranma another chance to retort. Besides, she honestly couldn't remember what had happened with the soap opera and she'd missed these more casual chats with her other sister. Over the period of her engagement with Ranma they'd lost touch with each other and she kind of missed the caring sister that hid behind the 'manipulative Ice Queen' façade. There was no way she was allowing her relationship with Nabiki to grow that far apart this time around.

Akane smiled softly as she watched her cold sister slowly grow more animated and passionate in her arguments.

Life was good. And Shampoo, she knew, had watched the entire incident take place but not dared to attack her with Ranma there. She was presumably now off to follow Ryoga since he had managed to steal her precious soap. A part of her was tempted to let them know that the soap would lose its effect given time but then there would be the issue of explaining how she knew that.

Resigning herself to the chaos that would follow next week, Akane instead concentrated on the present. Ranma was still sitting just behind her and staring in puzzlement at the pond. He'd changed himself back and forth three or four times by now, obviously wondering whether there was something about the way Ryoga had landed or the pond itself that had allowed the boy not to turn into a pig. Needless to say his efforts were fruitless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night Akane had no nightmares; instead her dreams were of a possible future with Ranma. She didn't dream anything special; no children, no passionate nights or extravagant her dreams were simply of them together, day to day - fights about whose turn it was to do the laundry, who was the better martial artist, who had more rivals or suitors, soft kisses, gentle touches and just normal working days.

It was everything Akane had always imagined, the way she thought a life with Ranma would be. And it was perfect - still arguing, still fighting, still having random challengers turn up, still passionate about each other and martial arts above all else. It was _them._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had dawned on her yesterday - she had not thought about it before- but she needed a training partner. Her hip was still smarting and it shouldn't be. Akane knew that she desperately needed to toughen up, needed to learn to take hits. Over the last few years she'd not really had a satisfactory opponent.

Her father never used his full force in his attacks, Ranma always evaded and never lifted a hand against her and she'd always been too fast for the boys at school to get a good hit in; which meant she was woefully unprepared for the likes of Shampoo who was sure to hit her at least a couple of times and Akane couldn't afford the time it would take her to recover from that or to ignore the pain.

That left only one solution.

A training partner; someone who wouldn't hesitate to hit a girl and more importantly use their full force. Someone who would be able to teach her and challenge her. Someone just insane enough and sufficiently uncaring to not let up if she got bruised or bled and instead continue pushing her past her current limits.

That meant only one person she knew was truly up to the task.

With a sigh Akane entered the family room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mr. Saotome, may I have a word with you? It's sort of about Ranma."

Genma looked up and to his surprise found his son's fiancée standing in front of him, blushing. Well, well, well. Who knew his son had it in him to actually tame the young Tendo. He'd been starting to lose hope with all their fights and insults, especially after he found out the Romeo and Juliet kiss had been done with duct tape.

Smirking to himself he nodded to the girl and followed her into her room. He closed the door behind him and sat down on the floor in front of her.

"Thank you, Mr. Saotome. I have a … let's say mutually beneficial proposal to you."

To his astonishment he found himself staring at Akane; gone was the blushing, demure maiden that had asked to speak to him in regards to Ranma. She'd been replaced by a confident, self-assured and almost cold woman that looked at him with a bit too much calculation for him to feel entirely at ease about the situation.

"Now, I will take your silence as tacit consent so let me explain. As you may or may not have noticed, both Shampoo and Ukyo have extraordinary skills in the martial arts - not to mention Cologne. As you are aware, all three of us have a claim on being engaged to Ranma in one shape or another. On top of that there is the issue that since your initial arrival in Nerima we've been confronted with stronger and stronger rivals and enemies. I was a good martial artist before you came but I now realise that I have a long way to go still, especially if I wish to compete for being your son's other fiancées. I have tried to train myself, but there is only so far you can go without instruction and a training partner."

She took a deep breath and Genma found himself raising an eyebrow. It wasn't hard to figure out what she wanted. His son really needed to learn how to treat women; you never ever tell them they can't do something. If he'd ever told something along those lines to Nodoka - he shuddered to think of the consequences. Women were meant to be protected but without ever letting them know just how difficult the fight was. Admittedly, Ranma seemed to act quite similarly to himself when he was younger in regards to females.

In his defense very few women had ever actually garnered his respect. Nodoka was one of them. His son should learn to do the same with his fiancée.

"So? My son will train you."

She snorted and raised an eyebrow at him, derision in her voice as she replied.

"Your son? You mean Ranma? Ranma won't do anything but gently tap me - he won't even defend himself in case I hurt myself hitting him. All he ever does is evade. That's not training and it's not doing anything except maybe increase my speed. No, Ranma is not helpful. My dad is too cautious as well about hurting his 'precious baby'. And, well, Cologne has no reason to train me and Happosai is far too perverted and I'd be leery of anything I learn from him. No, it has to be you. You have got every reason to train me and none not to."

Genma mildly raised an eyebrow - this girl surely couldn't be serious. She was a girl! There was no way he'd train her.

"Martial arts are for men. Don't worry; I'm sure my son will do his utmost to protect you."

Akane laughed.

"What is it you want then? This engagement is for a union between our schools of martial arts - the Tendo and the Saotome style, isn't it? Do you expect Ranma to teach everything and everyone by himself? And what - I'd be the compliant housewife? If that is truly what you're envisioning you'd be far better off looking at Kasumi as a match. I can't cook. I can't sew. I am not quiet, demure or whatever else you are looking for in a typical Japanese wife."

The youngest Tendo refused to yield and her eyes focused on his own firmly, voice steady, calm and convincing as she continued to talk.

"I am, however, a talented martial artist and I know the Tendo style. I simply haven't been pushed yet. I know you are the reason Ranma is as strong and as skilled as he is - I will need to be his partner, at his side and fight alongside him. I need you to train me in the Saotome style, to fight me and teach me to be his match."

He had to give it to her - she had guts. And it wasn't like she didn't have potential; even he could acknowledge that much. But she was a girl - they cried and whined and complained about period pains that wouldn't allow them to fight right then and there. They were always so difficult about everything.

"Pah, you couldn't handle a day of me training you."

He watched her eyes glitter and it took him a moment to realise she'd taken his words as a dare. Suppressing a sigh he looked at her as Akane said exactly what he'd expected from the hot-headed girl.

"Is that a challenge? In that case, I accept. We'll train right now. There is an abandoned lot a few streets over."

Well, why not. He'd get some training in and she'd probably give up after five minutes anyway - at maximum within half an hour. And then she'd see why she wasn't a martial artist the way boys were. Who knows - maybe he could even convince his son to spend a couple of hours a week sparring with his fiancée to pacify her.

"That's fine. But why an abandoned lot? The dojo-"

"No, that's one of the conditions I'll discuss with you later but all you need to know for now is that neither my family nor Ranma is to know of our arrangement."

Genma nodded sharply; it wouldn't matter anyway. He'd be rid of her soon enough and as his son was beating him as often as he beat Ranmait might be nice to once again be the undefeated master.

At least the girl had respect as she gave him a short bow. He couldn't remember the last time Ranma had done that.

As he was already dressed in his gi he simply walked out the front door and waited by the gate - luckily it didn't even take her a minute before she was by his side; he hated waiting and he hated how long it always took girls to get ready. What could possibly take that long anyway?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Huh. Maybe he'd have to revise his earlier statement. He'd been relatively cautious in his first approach, suddenly remembering that this was his son's fiancée as well as his best friend's daughter and not someone to go all out against.

Akane had immediately picked up on it and challenged him on it - since then he hadn't held back and the girl was on the ground more often than not. He had managed to kick her, knock her down and hit her numerous times. Anyone who wasn't a martial artist would probably call it abuse, as it was easy to see that she didn't stand much of a chance against him when he went all out. However, despite the numerous bruises, cuts and other injuries over her body she kept getting up immediately, flowing into either another attack or a defensive position.

There was none of the crying and whining he'd expected; none of the mollycoddling he thought she'd been after for being hurt.

Instead, she had done exactly as he expected of a serious martial artist. Akane simply catalogued her injuries, compensated for them in her movements without obviously giving away any weak spots and stood back up; again and again, without fail. And to his surprise he could actually feel something akin to pride and respect growing in him for this tiny slip of a girl that simply wouldn't give up.

"Had enough?"

"Phh, what? You getting too old, gramps?" Akane merely wiped the blood from her split lip, giving him a challenging look.

He grinned slightly in response; this was actually turning out to be fun.

As he had done with Ranma he now deliberately pointed out flaws in her stances and weakness or openings in her maneuvers by hitting them. Hard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Genma grimaced in sympathy when he heard the telltale crack of bones under his hand and her stifled cry of pain. Hours had passed since they first started. He jumped back, intent on ending the fight and having a look at how bad her injury was but the moment he jumped aside, Akane took the opening he'd given her and her knee smashed into his stomach even as her hand cracked down on his shoulder. He groaned slightly at the unexpectedness of the pain that followed her maneuver before signaling the end of the fight.

As expected of any well taught martial artist, Akane immediately halted her attacks, hands limply falling to her side as she bowed to him again.

"Let's have a look at that arm, girly."

The blue haired girl blinked at him and he could see the surprise in her eyes.

"I'm still good to go, sensei."

Raising an eyebrow, he tapped her injured arm and saw her wince in pain. For the moment the adrenaline would keep most of it at bay but he could tell she'd be in a much worse state later on. Despite her flinch she kept her brown eyes on him, telling him without words that she was more than willing to keep fighting.

"It's okay, girl. You convinced me - I'll train you." He gave her a cold smirk. "Now let me have a look at your arm."

Akane nodded in response.

"It's dislocated."

Genma looked at her curiously.

"Have you had it dislocated before?"

She gave him a mute nod.

"You'll know what I have to do?"

Another silent nod.

"On three then." He placed his hand on her shoulder and braced her with the other. Without warning he simply said "two" and pushed the bones back into place.

Akane gasped in pain before gritting her teeth, closing her eyes and breathing through the pain the way she'd been taught to. A moment later, feeling the worst of the throbbing subside, she opened her eyes again and he took that moment to enquire further into this arrangement he was about to enter into.

"So, you said you had conditions?"

Genma watched as the girl visibly pulled herself and her thoughts back together. It was rather impressive; he knew that technically women had a higher pain threshold but still she'd not whined or admitted defeat to him. She had what it took in the world of martial arts; not just a high tolerance to pain but also courage, stubbornness, guts and the refusal to ever give up.

"Yes, I did. I want you to train me as you did today. I'll need to learn to fight and to live with the bruises and the pain; as it is my body is unused to taking damage and continuing a fight in spite of it. Also, I want to learn the Saotome style of fighting. And I will need your promise that none of this will ever be told, hinted at, written down or in any other way, shape or form communicated to anyone - including my family and Ranma."

Eyebrows raised in bewilderment he stared at Akane. If this was not as she had originally stated for her to be an equal to Ranma, then what was her full plan? Did she simply intend to learn everything from him and then ditch both Saotomes? She had to know that Soun would never allow such a dishonor to his family name to occur. So then why?

"I was under the impression you were doing this for Ranma?"

"I am. But I'm not good enough for him to rely on me just yet and I won't tell him until I'm ready. Not before. Besides, if Nabiki somehow found out all our rivals would simply be able to purchase the information from her and that would truly be counterproductive. Dad would try to throw me and Ranma together before we're ready and that way leads to disaster. And, well, Kasumi couldn't lie if her life depended on it. No, this will need to remain between us. Promise me."

That did sound remarkably reasonable. Besides, once she was good enough, he'd get the credit for having brought her up to that level; he would've managed to turn two children into world class martial artists. Despite her skill level he still doubted Akane would ever truly reach his son's proficiency in the arts but she did have some untapped talent he had to grudgingly admit to himself.

"I promise."

"You've broken a lot of promises over the years. How do I know this one isn't another one of them?"

Genma harrumphed at the mere idea that he would lie like that and dishonor himself - he might have done it a few times before but there had always been extenuating circumstances. This time there would be no payoff for him if he told others.

"You'll have to trust me."

His son's fiancée had the audacity to laugh at that suggestion.

"Riiiight. Trust _you_. No, I've got a better idea. Should you, Genma, ever blab about the training to anyone or fail to ensure you're not being followed or make anyone suspicious about it even, you will regret it. I believe there is a Nodoka Saotome living only a short distance away from here and I believe she'd be very interested to hear about Ranma's curse, what with the promise you made to her before you left for the extended training trip with her son. I believe we have an accord, yes?"

To say that he was flabbergasted would be describing it mildly. There had only been three people in the room when they had made that oath; him, Ranma and Nodoka. He certainly hadn't told anyone, Ranma was six years old and had not shown any evidence so far of remembering he ever even had a mother.

So did that mean she'd met his wife already? His heart started pumping faster as the panic set in. Nodoka knew nothing of leniency. If she judged them as having failed their contract, her concept of honour was strong enough to actually force both her son and her husband to commit Seppuku.

Genma cringed but nodded mutely. There was no way he would ever even breathe a word of this to anyone now and Akane seemed to be well aware of that.

She gave him a wide smile and made her way back home, protecting her left side slightly.

Well, at least he'd get to beat her up every day in return for making him concede to her. And, to be honest, it wasn't that big a concession in the first place.

Oh yes, he'd teach her the true meaning of pain tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh god, she'd have to wear her winter school uniform tomorrow or at least cover her bruises somewhat. She looked as if she'd been used as someone's punching bag; and felt like it too. Breathing through the pain she periodically hissed slightly as her hands rubbed the ointment over her skin to soothe her aching muscles.

Akane couldn't help but smile despite all the pain she was in, not only was Genma taking her seriously but she could already feel an improvement. Her muscles were aching which meant they would adapt and develop over the next few days.

Sunday had passed incredibly quickly and she knew tomorrow the entire thing with Ryoga would start. After all these years she couldn't remember everything that had happened, but she did recall that for some reason or another she'd ended up on a date with the lost boy and he'd nearly crushed her to death. And then there had been the typical interference from both Shampoo and Ranma.

She put on a long-sleeved shirt before joining her family for dinner.

In keeping with her own promise to improve hers and Ranma's relationship, as well as the one she'd made to her fiancé's father, she simply shook her head at her beloved's eating habits. Technically, the sheer speed of Ranma's food consumption should be impressive and years of having been subjected to this very sight had weaned her off the disgust she'd originally felt towards the Saotome style of gulping down any and all food within reach.

Daintily picking up her chopsticks, she enjoyed another one of Kasumi's fantastic meals.

"Soo… what did pig-boy write in his letter?" came the seemingly innocuous query from Ranma.

Akane smiled to herself, noticing that the boy made a point of not looking at her and piling more food on his plate instead.

"Why are you so interested all of a sudden?" She couldn't help but tease him, at least slightly.

"No reason. I mean… he might be challengin' you or somethin' and you obviously can't defend yourself against someone like Ryoga. He's way outta your league."

Smirking slightly, Akane took another bite of her dinner, eyebrows slightly raised at her fiancé's words, subduing her own pride that wanted her to challenge the smug bastard.

"Oh, he is, is he? Well, I think it looked a lot more like a love letter, so nothing to worry about."

Having spent years with him it was easy to see how he suddenly glared at the table, shoveled the food faster than before and how tightly his hands were clenched around his chopsticks. Ranma really was rather sweet even if he was being an oblivious boy about it all.

"But," she finally added, satisfied with the reaction he'd shown so far, "I wouldn't know for sure. The letter got wet and is completely illegible."

To her amusement her fiancé's shoulders relaxed minutely as he snorted.

"As if anyone would send a flat-chested tomboy like you any love letters."

Akane laughed.

"Did you forget about the 30-40 odd boys that declared their love for me every day until you came?"

Ranma harrumphed in reply but obviously gave up the argument since she'd not reacted as he had expected to his insults by retaliating in kind.

Yes, today had been a good day. And it was only looking up from here on in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As all other authors I write for reviews - so please do let me know what you think, like, don't like, could be improved, plot holes; anything at all is appreciated!


	4. Discussions and the art of flirting

Hiya guys! For those that read my other Ranma story as well, you'll probably already know but just to let the others know: Broken foot, week in hospital and now six weeks in plaster. Boohoo! And it's summer, simply unfair! Anyway, hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Updates might be slower in coming due to broken foot. Or faster. Not sure yet. Sorry guys!

**Warning:** Lots of fluffiness and some talk of alcohol and drug abuse and other depressing stuff

**Mega thanks** to my fabulous, incredibly quick and brilliant beta reader **PurseMonger**! Read her stories if you haven't already! And otherwise big thanks to her - she's the reason for the lack of grammar and spelling mistakes!

**Reviewers**: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the last chapter, this one is dedicated to you guys.

For the first time in this story I've taken the time to respond to everyone's reviews since the first chapter (Whew. Took me over two hours!). Anyway, I was blushing with all the compliments though I'm kinda sad about how many people I seem to have lost after chapter one and chapter two. I hope they're all still reading! Anyway, I've addressed everyone at the bottom of this chapter!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Somehow it was Monday already and that meant, unfortunately, school. They were for once early and unhurried on their way to school - no fights, no challenges and even his pop hadn't wanted to do morning training.

Ranma sent would-be casual glances at his blue haired fiancée. After waking him up she'd been eerily quiet and he wondered if she was angry with him for whatever reason; he couldn't think of anything he could've done but then again it wasn't too often that he was aware of what wrong he'd committed. He'd been too distracted with Ryoga's cure yesterday to confront Akane about her injuries but now was as good a time as any.

Balancing himself on the fence he gave her another cursory glance. He was not concerned, _really_.

"Hey."

He watched her pink lips twist into a smile and felt the moment her warm, expressive brown eyes met his. His heart skipped a beat and it took him half a second to remember that his feet needed to move if he wanted to keep up that forward momentum thing.

"Hey."

Her voice was velvety and for whatever reason, Akane had been excessively nice to him lately. She'd stopped insulting him and didn't even react when he called her names. To be honest, he was starting to feel as if he was extraordinarily cruel, insulting her when she simply smiled and joked rather than taking offense.

Something had changed. He was tempted to say ever since the nightmare but knew it had started before then. That morning where she'd refused to go to school, citing a sudden illness. Ranma shrugged mentally. Whatever it was, he'd find out sooner or later. For the moment he'd enjoy this suspiciously pleasant girl beside him for as long as he could. She was still Akane in all the ways that mattered.

"So… what's with your lip?"

He watched as she giggled slightly. To be honest the bruise had faded almost into nonexistence already. It had looked much worse last night at dinner and he'd seen her wince more than once when the food had touched her obviously tender lips.

"Would you believe me if I said I ran into a door?"

In spite of himself, Ranma found himself chuckling at her response.

"Nah."

"Yeah, didn't think so." Her small shoulders lifted into a gentle shrug. "Nothing big. I'm sick and tired of you being better than me - so I'm training."

Ranma blinked slowly before his eyes narrowed. There was something that she wasn't telling him - again. It took a moment before he realised what it was. It was highly unlikely that even she'd be clumsy enough to punch herself in the mouth.

"You found a training partner?"

He watched her lips quirk into that appreciative half-smile again and his heart sped up slightly at the sight.

"Yep." She gave him a full smirk this time that set his teeth on edge. Akane only ever looked like that when she was challenging him or accusing him of being interested in her.

"Don't worry. It's not Ryoga."

"Phh.. I wasn't worried or nothing. Just checking it's not one of _them_, y'know…"

Predictably, he dismissed the notion that he was worried though admittedly the thought had crossed his mind. Especially after the love letter the lost boy had handed his fiancée. Damn it, why was it so hard for them to get it through their thick skulls? Akane was _his _fiancée! They were engaged for heaven's sake. You don't go after engaged women!

A small voice reminded him that he had been the one who'd loudly protested their engagement and emphasized how it had been arranged solely by their parents without either his or Akane's consent. He squashed the voice with the force of habit before he could think further about it.

"One of … them?" The blue haired girl looked puzzled momentarily before understanding seemed to dawn.

"Oh! You mean one of the incompetent boys at school? The ones that attacked me en masse for a date? Nah! I could beat any of them with my hands tied behind my back. Besides, don't you remember? They gave up once you defeated Kuno."

Ranma found himself flushing. He knew that. Of course he did, but that didn't mean he didn't occasionally still think about it. He wasn't going to tell Akane but once he'd seen that happening at school, he'd sort of understood why she called him a pervert. Worst of all, the teachers did nothing to prevent this sort of situation from occurring, though to him that was nothing new. He'd learned from a young age that adults were not there to help you but rather to give you progressively harder challenges to complete and watch you fail miserably.

It was perfectly normal for guys to think about pretty girls; but it was another thing altogether to band together to attack one and make her submit to a date with you. Trying to use your superior strength and skill and then, on top of all that, to attack together rather than separately challenging Akane to a duel… it was dishonorable. If there was one thing Ranma believed in, it was honor. Plus, having talked to some of the guys even casually, he kinda doubted that they had been fighting that hard for just a date with her.

And he wasn't quite sure how he felt about that except that it made him really, _really_ mad. So it wasn't surprising that when he saw her injured he'd thought that maybe now they'd gone so far as to attack her from behind while she was unaware and then in high numbers…

Ranma banished the thought. It hadn't happened. She had simply found someone to train her; good for her. Akane had a lot of potential, maybe this mysterious training partner would help bring some of that out in her.

Yet he couldn't help but have a nagging feeling that whoever it was, he wouldn't like them; especially if it was a guy. The pigtailed martial artist refused to think about why that would matter, instead sending another glance the beautiful blue haired girl at this side before looking away, attempting to ask casually and not give away the importance her answer would hold to him.

"So… is your training partner male or female?"

He watched as his fiancée's doe brown eyes suddenly sparkled with amusement and her smile turned mischievous.

"Male. Why? Does it matter?"

Ranma found his hands clenching. He was… angry?

"Who is he?"

His teeth were gritted and his jaw was tight as he pressed the words out. Why was he mad? If Akane got better maybe he wouldn't have to save her as often and she'd be able to defend herself better. That was good, right? But then why did he hate the thought of it so much? And why did it bother him to know that the person helping her was male? Maybe… Yeah, he was just worried it was another pervert using the opportunity to feel up his fiancée. God knows there were too many of them out there as it was.

Her laugh jerked him out of his thoughts of how to best '_teach_' this guy not to mess with Akane.

"Don't worry. He's as old as your dad, Ranma. Definitely not competition."

Ranma found himself blushing to the roots of his hair at those words.

"Pah, you can go out with whoever you like. I don't care!"

Instead of the usual anger that would've followed his words normally - he'd already cringed away in reflex - Akane's eyes glittered strangely and she smiled at him in an odd way he couldn't quite place.

"So you wouldn't mind if I went out with Ryoga?"

"That's different. He's my rival - you could be telling him about techniques and stuff."

To his surprise Akane's smile seemed to only widen at his words.

"Okay then. What about Kuno? Or Hiroshi - he's one of your friends, right?"

Ranma snorted.

"Kuno's nuts. And his idea of honor is … questionable. And well, Hiroshi's a pervert. He's got a one-track mind."

His fiancée seemed to only be more amused.

"Right. What about Daisuke then? Or Gosunkugi? Or Sanzenin?"

Raising his eyebrows he looked back at Akane.

"Daisuke is just as perverted as Hiroshi. Gosunkugi is… insane. He tried to poison you as Juliet, remember? And he has no strength at all, he couldn't protect you if he tried. And Sanzenin is a jerk who goes after anything with legs."

He couldn't decipher the look Akane next shot him but her words made him pause mid-step.

"So who can I date?"

Ranma was frozen. Who indeed? He ran through all the guys at school in his mind but immediately dismissed all of them as useless, dishonorable, too weak, too much of a pervert or with some other explanation of why they weren't good enough for her. Huh... And for some reason the idea of Akane with any man bugged him. Dismissing the thought quickly, he shrugged vaguely.

"Guess the guy who can handle a tomboy like you doesn't exist yet."

His fiancée smirked at him, eyes sparkling with amusement and he had the faint feeling he'd once again said something she thought was funny.

"So what you are saying is that I need a guy who can protect me, is strong, honourable, not perverted and doesn't chase after women…" He watched as her tongue dipped out of her mouth, gently licking her pink lips before Akane gave him another sideways glance, eyes laughing. "Hmmm… wherever would I find such a guy?"

A small voice inside his head couldn't help but point out that _he_ could protect her - and had, in fact, done so numerous times - that he was strong, had proven himself not to be the pervert she often accused him of being. That honour was a concept he strongly believed in and upheld to the best of his ability. As usual the voice was drowned out and quickly ignored.

"Dunno…" He shrugged slightly before remembering what he'd wanted to say earlier about her aiding him with Shampoo in the public bath. "Erm… about that thing you did on Saturday… err… thanks, y'know. I mean, it's not like I couldn't have handled it myself but… yeah, thanks."

The smile she gave him was brilliant. Akane's entire face lit up, eyes sparkling, lips spread, teeth glistening and just like that Ranma's heart stopped.

There it was again - he'd noticed it a couple of times before but she always became this magnificent, captivating creature when she smiled. It was like a spell but he couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think.

All he was capable of was to stare at her with wide eyes, heart racing, blood pounding through his body at unprecedented speeds as the full force of her smile took effect. It took him another moment before he realised he'd even stopped breathing simply staring at the beauty in front of him.

Only then did he notice that her lips were moving and she was obviously trying to say something to him. His ears had a hard time focusing on anything beyond the blood rushing through them. Forcing himself to blink, he finally regained sufficient control over his mouth to express his confusion.

"Huh…?"

His fiancée smiled genially at him, a teasing lilt in her tone as she answered.

"I said, 'you're very welcome, Ranma'."

Welcome? For what? It took another few moments before he recalled what had happened before Akane had subjected him to her thousand-watt smile. He'd been thanking her for the warning about the flight of the Shampoo-cat over into the men's bath.

He was just about to ask what that had all been about when he heard the school bell.

"Oh no!"

Wide eyed Akane glanced at him before both started into a full out-and-out run, hoping to still make it to school on time. And to think they'd left early today, too.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Originally, he had intended to seek out Akane the moment the lunch bell rang and ask about the odd noises from the women's public baths and why Shampoo had been sent over to the men's section. Despite the Amazon's pride in her body and promiscuity with himself, she usually waited at least until they were somewhere more private than a room full of naked men before coming onto him. Something was off and he wasn't quite sure what it was. And how had Akane been able to warn him ahead of time? It was all very odd.

Instead however, his fiancée had made her way to the lavatories and he found himself cornered by her two best friends; Sayuri and Yuka. Both dragged him into a deserted classroom, looking rather suspiciously around themselves before they started a whispered conversation.

Ever since he'd been introduced to fiancée number three, he'd realised that women - any woman, claim on him or not - cornering him was not going to end well. He looked at them cautiously; Ranma thought it was rather unlikely that these two would betray Akane by propositioning him in any way but experience had taught him to be wary nonetheless.

"So… errr… what's this about?" He finally ventured guardedly.

"Right… Ranma… We normally wouldn't be doing this but… Have you noticed anything…_ off_ about Akane lately?"

He hesitated, biting his lip as he thought, before finally relaxing.

"Yeah. What about it?"

Sayuri and Yuka exchanged glances before their expressions firmed.

"On Saturday - she shoved Shampoo against the wall in the women's bath."

Ranma sputtered.

"She WHAT?"

He couldn't believe what Akane's friends were telling him. They explained everything they'd seen and heard, including how violently his fiancée had reacted towards the Amazon. It was… hard to believe, almost. If she hadn't been so different over the last couple of days, he would've dismissed their words but as things stood… Damn it. What could've possessed her to challenge and assault a superior fighter in such a mindless way?

Eyes narrowing his head shot over to the exit of the classroom.

"Thanks for letting me know. Excuse me - I'm off to find Akane."

Both her friends winced but he ignored them and left the room at a brisk pace, searching out the stupid blue haired girl that was obviously out to start a war. She was damn lucky not to have been killed already for insulting Shampoo in such a way.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Akane realised almost immediately what was taking place when she heard from her other classmates that Sayuri and Yuka had taken Ranma aside. There was no doubt - she'd been acting odd but she hadn't thought about it too much. Obviously, her best friend's alarm bells were ringing and they had thought they needed to involve her fiancé.

She found herself wincing slightly. This morning had been going so well, she'd hate to see how angry he was now; and there was no doubt in her mind that he'd be mad with her for attacking the Amazon without provocation. Running, she knew, wouldn't help. Not with Ranma in this state; he'd search until he found her and that would only make him angrier.

Resigned to the confrontation she was due to have, she moved up to the roof with her bento box. This was not going the way she'd planned. Not at all.

Minutes after she'd seated herself, the door flew open and out came the pigtailed martial artist she was engaged to.

"Tell me you didn't!"

"I'd rather not lie to you, if it's all the same to you."

Ranma blinked slightly and Akane suppressed her smile. She was well aware that he'd probably misinterpret that but she did enjoy taking the wind out of his sails at least a bit.

"You actually had Shampoo by her neck up at the wall? You threatened her?" His voice was incredulous, as if he hadn't actually believed it until now.

"Yes."

Once again her fiancé looked stunned at her brazen confirmation of the facts before rage overtook him again.

"_'__Yes'_? THAT'S IT? _YES_? Do you even realise what you've done? Shampoo will be after your head now! What were you thinking, Akane? You're no match for her!"

The blue haired girl nodded gently, still not matching his anger and simply remaining calm and serene in the face of his accusations. Internally, she winced - this definitely wasn't helping one iota towards making him more amenable - but she didn't know what else to do. There was no way to justify what she'd done. Shampoo _was _innocent at this point in time.

"I know. I know I can't match her and I know she'll be after me. I've started training with a partner, I'll get better but right now I'd lose in a fight against her. I… didn't think it through at the time. I know it's not ideal and it leaves you with the burden of somehow protecting me. . I'm so sorry, Ranma."

"SORRY? SORRY? DAMN RIGHT YOU HAD BETTER BE SORRY! THIS IS… Huh? You're sorry?" Ranma looked honestly baffled. Akane rarely, if ever, apologized; especially in such a forthright manner.

"Yes. I'm sorry I didn't think before I acted. I'm sorry I attacked her. I'm sorry you're getting caught in the middle. And I'm sorry for forcing you to play bodyguard, yet again."

Her fiancé blushed.

"Ah…'s okay. I mean, it's not great… but hey, I can take Shampoo any time."

Akane's smile became more amused as she looked at him.

"Huh, looks like you were right again this morning. I'll need someone as strong and as skilled as you to protect me."

Pah - only until her body caught up with her mind. And even until then she always had the Hiryuu Shoten Ha if worst came to worst. But… she had always liked Ranma in full protective mode. He was very cute and tended to not let her out of his eyesight.

Five years ago she would've been mad at the insult to her own skills. Experience and training had taught her just how good she could be. So to her, instead of it being an insult on her as a martial artist it was simply a statement that she'd not been opposed by anyone with sufficient skills to challenge her until Ranma had turned up; and that was not an insult on her but rather on the lack of opportunity she'd had so far to develop. And she was working towards rectifying that situation.

"Hah! There's no better martial artist than me out there! I can beat anyone!"

Akane smiled, amused. She knew that Ranma had no idea of the implications of the statement he was giving, especially in relation to their discussions this morning. He simply was arrogant and conceited about his talent with the arts and rightfully so. Deciding that it was far too early to make a move on him, the youngest Tendo satisfied herself with a short acknowledgement.

"Well, I'm glad you're protecting me then. Thank you, Ranma."

Her fiancé blushed again before nodding.

"'s okay."

With a warm smile at Ranma, she moved to open her bento box. At his hungry eyes, Akane found herself giggling.

"Join me? I'm not quite so hungry today and I'd hate for Kasumi's hard work to go to waste."

Licking his lips she barely had time to blink before he was at her side, staring intently at the lunch box. Laughing softly she looked up at the sky as she set up their lunch.

"Hm… I like the roof. It's beautiful out here, especially when you can see the sunshine, blue sky and nary a cloud."

Ranma simply gave her an absent nod, eyes still focused on the delicacies Kasumi had prepared for her lunch. To be honest, Akane was incredibly hungry after yesterday's exercise but the chance to actually share and enjoy Ranma's company was definitely worth going a little hungry.

"Do you mind sharing chopsticks? I didn't bring a second pair."

That finally got her fiancé's attention, however momentarily. His cheeks tinged slightly pink he nodded mutely after another enquiring glance at her.

"Great. Here try this."

Before he could object she'd popped the sushi roll into his open mouth and then proceeded to take one of her own. The pigtailed youth flushed slightly but then redirected his eyes to the sky, chewing quickly.

"It's very good."

"Mm-hmm. I know. It's one of my favorites. Kasumi usually tries to put them in my lunch box at least once a week. She's very considerate that way. I'm sure if you let her know your favorites, you'd find them in your bento at least once a week as well."

Akane smiled to herself. She'd successfully distracted him from the romantic and intimate situation - Ranma was currently looking contemplative.

"Try this one next. I really love this with just a dip of wasabi - that sound good to you?"

Her fiancé gave her a short sideways glance but nodded.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Taste first, then I'll tell you."

Shrugging the boy agreed to her terms. Instead of taking the chopsticks from her he simply opened his mouth in invitation. To her surprise, her heart beat increased rapidly, her stomach was filled with butterflies and her cheeks were flushed. Even years of having been far more intimate with this man hadn't dampened any of the effect he'd had on her.

Especially in moments like this one where he clearly showed his trust and faith in her. She knew that he'd never agree to Ukyo or Shampoo doing this for him. Her hands shook slightly as she watched the sushi roll disappear behind his lips, hormones flooding her system as she tried desperately to think of anything else but kissing him.

His blue eyes snapped back open, having closed momentarily to taste the food, electrifying her as they met her own. Akane swallowed involuntarily, trying in vain to calm her racing heart down to a more sedate pace.

"Very tasty."

Was it her imagination or did his voice sound rougher than normal? And why were his eyes so intent on her own? Blushing Akane forced herself to look back at the bento. This Ranma didn't know how to flirt yet, she reminded herself. Sheer coincidence.

"Ah… that's… that's good. That was fried squid and cherry tomato, by the way."

Suddenly her fiancé leaned much closer into her, looking into her bento box curiously. She could feel his hot breath on her hand, feel the warmth his body was exuding next to her own, smell the unique scent that was purely Ranma and that she'd always found attractive… He was too close! Far too close! His lips were moving, his dark blue eyes were so close - just a few inches and she could turn his head and kiss him until he'd forget everything but her name… She gulped drily, desperately trying to send more oxygen to her brain, trying to regain control over her thoughts and, more importantly, her actions.

"You got any more of those?"

"Huh? Uh… _what_? I mean, yes, I do. Here…"

Heart racing, Akane almost involuntarily held out the chopsticks to Ranma. To her surprise, he ignored them entirely, looking at her with a mix of curiousity and… anticipation?

It took another moment before it dawned on her - he was waiting on her to feed him. Blushing furiously, she licked her lips slightly as she picked up another one of the sushi rolls.

To her embarrassment her hand was shaking so badly the roll dropped out from her chopsticks. Her blush darkened as she fastened her chopsticks around the roll again, avoiding Ranma's eyes.

And then he took her by surprise again - his hand encompassed her own, calming down her shaking hands with ridiculous ease even as he leaned forwards and allowed his lips to fasten around the food.

Eyes wide she gasped not only at the sensation of his hand around hers but also at the sensuality of his actions. She gulped as Ranma, apparently oblivious to the effect his actions were having on her, chewed thoughtfully on the proffered food.

"This is really good. Might be one of my favourites."

Akane found herself mindlessly picking a random sushi roll to eat and dipped it into the sauce, trying desperately to distract herself and fill her mouth so she couldn't demand that Ranma take her right here and now. Damn hormones.

She noticed her fiancé's alarmed expression and outstretched hand a second too late. Quickly swallowing her food, Akane found herself looking questioningly at the pale boy.

"A-Are you alright?"

"Yes…Why wouldn't I be?"

Oh god, something was wrong…

"That- You just ate all the wasabi."

Ranma looked at her searchingly and Akane felt all the colour drain from her face. As per his words her taste buds abruptly told her just how spicy her food had been. That had definitely not been soy sauce on her sushi…

The blue haired girl dropped the lunch box as if it was on fire, hands in front of her mouth as she ran to the nearest bathroom. Why did she forget to bring water with her today of all days?

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

How…very intriguing.

Despite his frequent obliviousness to anything but the most obvious overtures, Ranma was by no means unaware of the art of flirting. It was, after all, what he used whenever he wanted any free food as a woman. He'd never before associated it with his 'uncute' fiancée though, but the signs were all there - and not just in her actions. The stuttering, the long looks at his lips, the blushes, the hyperventilation… It was as clear as rain. But that couldn't be… right?

Still, he had done it as a way to test the waters with Akane - she'd been flirting with him but he'd dismissed it. They always fought, always insulted each other… but then he reminded himself how she had refused to do exactly that for a couple of days now and it had made him rethink.

He remembered clearly what Hiroshi had said that first gym class - how sharing the same water bottle was an indirect kiss. So when Akane had asked if he minded sharing chopsticks he'd been embarrassed but refused to back down or bring up the topic as long as she didn't.

And then she'd removed the chopsticks from her lips, picked up something - one of her favorites! - and put it in his mouth before he could object. His heart had started racing against his will. He'd heard the girls talk about romanticisms. Ranma knew about couples sharing food and he'd wanted to demand answers from Akane - but stopped himself. It took him a moment to realise how successful her distraction had been.

But when she'd given him another one to try he knew he'd needed to test his theory, test if she really was flirting, really was interested in him. In keeping with his thoughts, his voice had been huskier than normal and he had seen her reaction to it. In that moment he wasn't sure if he was saying that the sushi roll was tasty or if it was the fact that her lips and her mouth had touched these chopsticks before him - and she'd seemed to draw the same conclusion.

His fiancée had blushed in reply and his own heart had sped up. Never would he have associated these signs with Akane of all people but he couldn't help but flirt back, hoping desperately he'd not misread her.

He hadn't.

Ranma wasn't quite sure what had happened but he'd heard her inhale sharply at his proximity when he'd leaned over into her personal space under the guise of looking into the bento box. When her hands shook badly enough that she dropped the sushi he'd had another answer. He had an effect on her, despite all their denials and all their fights. It was him she'd reacted to and only him.

Before he could stop himself he'd fastened his own hands around her small, feminine ones. He had heard her gasp, felt her shaking subside and her pulse point on her wrist had given away just how fast her heart was racing. It nearly matched his own.

It had provided his male ego with a lot of satisfaction to notice how her eyes were fixed on his lips when he'd bent down to eat off the chopsticks and how her heart had jumped yet again and picked up pace. Ranma honestly couldn't say how far he would've gone, what he would've done next. But he had to admit, it was in keeping with the typical chaos they ended up in to have her suddenly eat a huge amount of wasabi.

He winced in sympathy - his fiancée was probably still in the bathroom. Picking up the bento gently he couldn't help but smile.

Huh. How about that. Akane _was_ attracted to him.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

For the first period after lunch, Ranma could not keep his thoughts or eyes off Akane. The revelation he'd had on the roof had stunned him and he still found it hard to believe.

Akane, the one fiancée that continuously accused him of being a pervert, an idiot, a jerk and whatever else she could come up with that day, was attracted to him. He'd always known he looked good and girls seemingly flocked to him no matter what he did. The youngest Tendo had intrigued him simply by doing exactly the opposite of whatever he expected her to do. Her emotions appeared to change at a whim without any prior notice and always taking him aback. Sometimes she was extremely kind - like that time she'd carried him piggyback from Dr. Tofu's clinic home - other times furious without reason - though, if she really was attracted to him, then maybe she'd been… jealous?

He kept glancing at her, having long since given up even feigning paying attention to the teacher though they seemed to have given up on him for the most part, too.

Akane was a mystery, a puzzle. Shampoo and Ukyo threw themselves at him. He didn't know how to handle that but at least he knew what both girls wanted and expected of him. With the blue haired girl he had no such luck. He couldn't figure her out. She didn't want the engagement and yet she was attracted to him. Maybe she just found him physically attractive but didn't like him?

Ranma sighed. This was not like him at all. He didn't like spending that much time thinking about anything but martial arts. Besides, he could always try to understand her later; the cure to his curse and Ryoga had a much higher priority just now. Since Shampoo would be after the cure as well he could probably convince her to stay with him and thus keep Akane from harm at the same time.

He sincerely hoped his fiancée appreciated all the effort and unwanted attention he went through on her behalf, though he doubted it.

Now, where to find Ryoga?

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Akane grimaced. The taste of the wasabi still hadn't left her mouth and her tongue still tingled. She doubted she'd be able to taste much of anything for the next few days. Yuck!

How did Ranma always manage to make her act like a fool? She was twenty-four for goodness sake! Wasn't she meant to have gained some sort of composure over the years? He hadn't even kissed her nor touched her! She'd acted like some sort of lovesick idiot and why? Because he leant closer to her and asked her to feed him? Oh dear god, what was wrong with her? Were teenage hormones really that bad the first time around? On more than one occasion she'd nearly jumped her future fiancé and she hadn't blushed this badly back then.

Biting back a groan, Akane tried to ignore the frequent glances from Ranma. Hopefully he hadn't caught onto what he was doing to her.

Yeah, fat chance! Of course he knew she'd acted differently; there was no way he could've missed that!

Gritting her teeth, Akane told herself firmly to fix her attention on what the teacher was talking about… what subject was this again? With a slight blush she exchanged her history book for her maths one and tried to listen to what was being taught.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

She wasn't surprised when Ranma jumped out the window after class instead of taking the 'long way' out. He'd be desperate to get his hands on- Oh… Akane shook her head, looking out after the quickly disappearing martial artist but he was too far gone for her to still regain his attention. She'd forgotten entirely to tell him about the soap. Oh well, he'd found out somehow the first time around.

Sayuri and Yuka had predictably also fled the classroom rather quickly. They were probably expecting her to see their chat with Ranma as a betrayal rather than the show of friendship and affection it was. Akane smiled softly, making her way through the masses in the courtyard.

"Oh fairest Akane Tendo!"

God, Kuno! She hadn't missed him at all.

"Fair warning, Kuno, leave me alone or I'll send you flying."

She was itching for a fight, knowing that Ranma would be spending his next few days with the Amazon and it irked her to no end. Nothing would happen, she reminded herself, but it still didn't soothe any of the anger she felt towards Shampoo.

It didn't help to calm her down. And Kuno was never one to accept the obvious - anger, narrowed eyes, stiff posture, clenched fists; any martial artist would recognize those signs as someone who was unlikely to be lenient in any way if you challenged them or pressed them at that moment. But, as mentioned before, Kuno was never one to accept the obvious or indeed anything at all. He much preferred to live in the world he made for himself, which, unfortunately for him, differed rather drastically from reality.

"Oh, thou art-"

Akane merely tilted her body to the side, the rose Kuno sent her way impacting some poor soul behind her. But she didn't register that, her entire body already in motion, aches and pains forgotten for the time being. The next moment she was up close to the boy dressed in Samurai garb, shoulder pushing into his upper body with all the force she could muster. At the same time her leg neatly caught him at the knees sending him staggering forwards right into her right fist which landed in his stomach - on his kidneys, once, twice, thrice before she sent him flying again with another kick.

Dusting off her hands she picked up her schoolbag, whistling happily to herself. Life was good. That had been almost fun. And some of her anger was finally quenched.

She didn't notice the stunned expressions on the people around her at the level of violence she'd displayed - usually Kuno would only receive a kick - nor was she aware how they parted around her like the red sea, leaving her with a clear path to the front gate.

Skipping, whistling cheerfully, she made her way home. Hopefully, Genma would have found a more suitable location for their training by now.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Half-way home Akane suddenly noticed a figure flying into the air originating from just around the corner. Huh… that had almost looked like… Ranma?

Curious, she sped up and suddenly found herself standing behind Ryoga. Realisation set in - she'd forgotten entirely about that.

"Oh Akane! How I wish you were here!"

Barely refraining from rolling her eyes, aforementioned girl pasted a cheery smile on her lips before addressing the lost boy.

"Hiya! Did you want something?"

And, to her endless amusement, Ryoga floundered. He stared at her, speechlessly and motionlessly for a moment before obviously berating himself and attempting to be more courageous. It was kind of funny to watch, knowing how much he had changed - or would be changing?

Ukyo really had been the perfect partner for him. Both had followed Ranma for years on a misguided search for revenge and her and Ryoga had found and cured each other, finally understanding the harm they'd inflicted on others as well as themselves. Ryoga had even tried talking Akane out of going to China, knowing better than anyone where she intended to take her training journey to and had tried to reason with her that revenge would never make her happy.

And he'd been right. It hadn't. But this Ryoga in front of her was still hopelessly crushing on her, still intent on beating Ranma, still entirely oblivious to anything beyond himself.

"Akane!"

Maybe she should encourage him? Maybe he'd realise sooner this time around? Smiling softly at him, tilting her head sideways she looked warmly at Ryoga, hoping to convey that he could tell her anything.

"Yes?"

She really should've realised what effect that would have on him. He blushed to the roots of his hair and turned away, attention on the wall as he poked holes into it, probably in a poor attempt to divert his eyes from her and calm down.

"Um… Uh… I… Will you… Um… G… G… G… Go…"

It was hard to suppress the smile that threatened to break out. He'd somehow obtained a microphone and was looking anywhere but her face even as she tried to come closer. He was still a deep crimson colour and sweat seemed to pour down his face.

"…G-Go… Ou… ou… AAARGH! I just can't say it!"

This time he actually broke out into tears even as she jerked back in surprise at his shout. Before she could interfere or stop him, he ran off.

"Um… Ryoga?"

"I'm such an... such an… idiot!"

He was almost wailing as he ran off into the distance. Akane couldn't help but chuckle slightly, shaking her head gently. Well, she didn't think anything had really changed to the last time around. Better luck next time.

Still amused and grinning to herself, she turned back and walked home. She knew Ranma and Shampoo had watched the spectacle from a nearby roof - they hadn't even tried to be subtle - but she trusted her fiancé to keep the angered Amazon away from her. Whether it was six years into the future or not, she could always rely on Ranma to protect her.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Stripping off her shoes she walked into her home.

"I'm home!"

Predictably Kasumi replied first, coming out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Welcome home, Akane. Father is in the dojo and Mr. Saotome has been gone all day already. We expect him back for dinner."

Smiling at her older sister she nodded, determined not to show her confusion. Her father was rarely ever in the dojo these days.

"Could I have something to eat? I ended up sharing my lunch and now I'm really hungry."

"Oh, Akane, that is so nice of you. Of course, I think I've got something in the fridge you can snack on. I'll prepare an extra large dinner tonight."

Following her older sister into the kitchen she suddenly found herself with a multitude of items being pressed into her hands.

"Onee-chan, I'm not Ranma. There's no way I can eat all that!"

Kasumi looked up from the fridge and at the sight of all the food precariously balanced in Akane's arms, she giggled.

"Oh my. Sorry, sis. Just pick out what you'd like."

Akane swiftly deposited most items back in the fridge, picking out some bland food items, knowing that she wouldn't be able to taste much anyway.

"So, how are you feeling today, Akane-chan?"

The youngest Tendo looked up quizzically before it dawned on her. Smiling wryly, she shook her head.

"No more nightmares, if that's what you're asking, Onee-chan."

Her older sister blushed slightly at having been caught, eyes lowered.

"I'm actually feeling rather good. Life just seems to… go more smoothly? Though I suppose I shouldn't say that too loudly. Chaos always seems to find us, after all."

Kasumi laughed softly.

"I am glad…One person with nightmares is enough."

Akane blinked in confusion. Had Ranma…? Or Kasumi?

"What do you mean?"

"Father… he's… do you know that today is his and Mother's wedding anniversary?"

With a gasp, whirling around, she checked the calendar and then paled. That day of hers and Ranma's almost wedding always did horrible things to her. Father, as far back as she could remember, always got terribly drunk on this day.

"I'll look to see how he's doing."

Determined, Akane finished her food and gave her thanks to her sister.

"Are you sure, Akane? He's not at his best around this time."

Smiling gently she nodded at her older sister. It was time to repay a favour.

There had been a time, after having dealt with both Cologne and Shampoo, where she had lost herself. All she had wanted was to forget herself - drugs, alcohol, the works. She'd thought she'd been in control, thought she hadn't changed, but then she'd returned home for her yearly one-week visit. Nabiki had taken one look at her and taken her aside.

Akane hadn't realised how far gone she was, how hard she was working to destroy herself, until her manipulative sister opened her eyes. It had been so easy to get lost, to forget, to just let go of all the hurts and disappear in a world where nothing mattered. Nabiki had understood in a way that no one else could've. She had watched the same thing happen to her father, had watched it consume him slowly and destroy him, had tried these things herself, hoping to understand, to forget, to change. But unlike Akane, she had realised on her own what she was doing and stopped. And then Nabiki had proceeded to challenge her and slap her until Akane realised that this was not what she wanted for herself - nor was it something Ranma had ever wanted to see her do.

They were martial artists; drugs and alcohol were poisons that slowed the body and its reaction and therefore should be abstained from. She had become weak- no, allowed herself to become weak. It was a miracle she'd survived those two months at all; she'd been half out of her mind most of the time.

It had taken enormous strength of will and determination but Akane had quit cold turkey. This was not the person she wanted Ranma to see when she came to his grave, this was not who she was. She was a tomboy; strong in character and mind. A survivor.

So she'd grabbed the tattered remains of her dignity after Nabiki was through with her and started to get her life back on track. And now it was time to repay the favour. She knew what her father was going through, knew the immense sadness and desperation he was feeling, knowing how the happiest day of his life had somehow turned into the worst. A memory of what-could've-beens, of happy dreams that had collapsed and turned into a nightmare. She knew.

Changing quickly into her yellow, summery and, most of all, happy dress, she walked towards the dojo. As expected, her father was staring emptily at a picture of her mother, tears running down his face unnoticed.

"Hey daddy, can we go see mommy? I think… I think she'd like us to come and celebrate your wedding day with her."

Her father looked up at her, stunned and surprised. They usually only went to her mother's grave once a year, on the anniversary of her death. Smiling gently, she knelt down at her father's side, compassionate even as her hands took the bottle of sake from his hands.

"I don't think you want mommy to see you this way. Why don't you wash up a bit and I'll get her some pretty flowers. Which ones did you have at your wedding?"

His eyes were still wide open and vulnerable before he visibly pulled himself together, voice rough and raw as he answered.

"Daisies. She had a chain of daisies in her hair - they were her favourites."

Smiling warmly she hugged her dad, ignoring the strong stench of the alcohol as well as the slight need she still felt towards it.

"Okay, I'll get some daisies and we'll go celebrate okay? The wedding day is the happiest day in a woman's life, you know. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to be so sad, daddy."

Soun's eyes had softened as his hand gently stroked her cheek.

"When did you get so smart, Akane-chan?"

The youngest Tendo smiled impishly, allowing some of the sadness over the loss of her mother to show in her eyes even as she responded.

"Well, you must have done something right in raising us, daddy."

He chuckled and shook his head in amusement but stood up nevertheless. Akane breathed in relief - the biggest hurdle was done, convincing her father. Now she needed to make it perfect. After making sure her father was in the furo she rushed back into the house, taking the chocolate chip cookies from Kasumi and the blue gloves she'd started knitting. They looked horrible and unrecognizable but it was the emotion behind it that counted, anyway.

After explaining the situation to Nabiki she'd obtained an ornate hair comb from her and then quickly gathered daisies from the garden. She'd barely finished the daisy chain when her father returned, dressed up in a flattering tuxedo, hair combed and eyes clear.

Akane smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

The walk to the cemetery was nice. They met a fair few neighbours and acquaintances en route and Soun smiled and waved at all of them.

"Your mum looked beautiful at the wedding. I don't think I've ever seen a more gorgeous woman in my life. Though as her daughters, you girls are certainly coming closer to her beauty every day. I was so nervous I dropped the ring twice because my palms were too sweaty."

Akane laughed softly. She had never heard this story before.

"We had decided on a traditional western wedding and your mother was in this beautiful white dress - she was glowing and more gorgeous than ever before. She had a veil on and a chain of daisies on her head. And the loveliest smile. I could swear my heart stopped beating whenever she smiled at me. I don't remember much of the ceremony - I was just staring at her. She even had to prompt me to say yes to the priest. All I could think about was that after this she would be with me forever. We thought that it would never end." He chuckled sadly, before recalling the rest of the ceremony.

"And she was the most graceful dancer. I stumbled over my own foot once or twice but she just twirled and laughed and I'd never been happier in my entire life than then and there, with her - well, until you all were born, of course. But that day nothing else mattered, just me and her. I miss her. Even now, after all those years."

Soun smiled gently at the memories in his head, eyes fixed in the distance. Akane's lips twitched into a warm smile. She couldn't help but sympathise. No matter how long it would have been since Ranma's death there was nothing and no one that could've ever made her forget about him. There was too much love, too many memories, too many feelings for her to ever truly forget about him. It wouldn't matter if decades had passed - there would only ever be Ranma for her. So yes, she understood beyond any doubt what her father was feeling, what he was going through.

"How did you propose to her, daddy?"

Soun chuckled at her question, smirking slightly at the remembrance.

"Her father scared me to death - properly scared me. He wasn't even a skilled martial artist and yet he had a battle aura that would've sent lesser men running. Your grandmother was a kind soul - much like Kasumi. She couldn't harm a fly, always pleasant and helpful, never angry. Your mother on the other hand was a spitfire! She was so much like you, Akane, passionate, fiery, loving, and tough. She wouldn't let anything or anyone dictate her life. She was headstrong and knew what she wanted in life." Her father smiled warmly at her, hand tussling her hair affectionately before he looked off into the distance again.

"To my surprise, she wanted me. It didn't matter what her father said. And so even though he rejected me when I asked for his daughter's hand in marriage, I proposed to her. I originally intended to propose in the restaurant but I lost my nerve. We were walking through the park close to her home when she told me that if I wanted to marry her I had bloody well get down onto my knee at some point and actually ask her. So I did. I fumbled and barely managed to say the words - but she said yes. And then she told her father that she was going to marry me and if he wanted to be the one to give her away he'd better get his act together." Soun laughed, shaking his head in memory of his late wife.

"That's when I knew it'd be a western wedding."

Akane giggled. They had arrived at the cemetery already and headed for the grave. A barely suppressed memory of pain shot through her - she was well used to sight by now, though she had come to expect to see Ranma's headstone next to her mom's. Closing her eyes, biting back the tears, it took her a moment to regain control. She hadn't expected the sight to take her aback so much.

"Happy wedding anniversary, my dear wife. I brought only Akane with me this time, our youngest. Though she has grown up far too quickly - she is now sixteen already!"

Smiling gently, Akane knelt down next to her father.

"Hi Mommy. I've missed you. We got you some daisies - daddy said they're your favourites. And we've also got some cookies here for you. Kasumi baked them - she's turned into a wonderful woman and a fantastic cook. Daddy says she reminds him of grandma. This is some knitting for you from me - I'm afraid I'm not good at anything related to typical housewife tasks. The glove-… well, you wouldn't really recognize it as a glove. But I wanted you to have it anyway. I put a lot of time, effort and love into making it. And… well this is from Nabiki. It's a hair comb. I always remember you had this beautiful, lush hair and you always looked so pretty. We all wanted to congratulate you on your wedding day, Mom."

She saw her father surreptitiously wipe at his eyes.

"See? Our children have all grown up into extraordinary women. I wish you were here with me to see them. I love you - we all love you and miss you very much. Not a day goes by where I don't think of you…"

Akane stepped out of hearing distance, waiting with her back to her father, giving him privacy to talk to his wife. The memories made her want to rush back home and reassure herself of Ranma's continued health, though she knew he was fine. But a part of her couldn't help but panic, emotions overwrought and thoughts in a jumble. Determined, she reigned herself back in, awaiting her father's return.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

For the first time in over a decade, Soun celebrated his wedding day and remained sober. That evening he relaxed in the support of his daughters, his family. Even Ranma and Genma joined in when they went through the family photo album, sharing amusing anecdotes. No one noticed that Akane had frequently initiated innocent, seemingly accidental touches with her fiancé throughout the night, needing to reassure herself that he was here - healthy and whole.

Everyone smiled and laughed, celebrating the life rather than the death of the woman who had given birth to three so vastly different yet loving daughters. They were family, and the addition of the Saotomes had only strengthened their family unit. Genma even added his own memories of the woman he'd come to know before his boy was ever born.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

Righto, what do you guys think?

To my reviewers:

**caia-chan: **Thank you for your review. As you can see, we've barely covered the beginning of the arc. I'm still trying to establish the changes in her life, sorry! And yes, Genma is a sadistic bastard :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless. Let me know what you think!

**Rascalize**: Hey! A new reviewer! Thank you! You're expressing yourself very well for English no being your mother tongue (if it helps, it ain't mine either ;)) I'm glad you're enjoying it and my take on a bit more mature Akane. Hope you loved this chapter too, I do :) Please review again and let me know what you make of it.

**The Keeper of Worlds**: Thank you for your review! I'm afraid you'll probably be somewhat disappointed by this chapter then - no open changes, yet. Things will slowly evolve, though :) Keep reviewing please!

**Compucles**: Thank you for your review! It's rather annoying how won't allow you to post two reviews to the same chapter, isn't it? I came upon this problem myself a few days ago *grumble* Anyway, thank you! I know, training with Genma is not going to be easy - or pleasant. As for your question - no, Shampoo landed on the tiles rather than the hot water. However, as water is unnaturally attracted to cursed people she did turn back rather earlier than she intended to but that won't come up until in, I think, two chapter's time (hint: when Ryoga sees Shampoo again). Anyway, thanks for both reviews! Let me know what you think of this chapter!

**Flameraven1**: Thanks for your review - yep, you're right. She's not going to consent to crazy Neko ken training or anything like that. She's her own woman and well aware of what she wants - Genma is there to provide an opponent as well as an excuse of how she could've known the Saotome fighting style.

Shampoo, luckily, is currently very occupied with what she thinks is a cure to the curse and Akane, while a threat, is less important than making herself more desirable in Ranma's eyes. She hasn't noticed any of the changes yet beyond Akane's behaviour in the baths…

*lol* I reserve the right to remain quiet about when she lets the boys know about her knowledge of Ryogas curse for now. It would give too much away :)

**Jeremy Harper**: Yay! Thank you very much for both the compliments and the review *blush*.

You're right, he did notice. But as you read he's been too occupied with finding Ryoga to confront Akane. And well, Genma swore not to let anyone know who is training her, so they're safe from that end at least for the moment. Hope you liked the Sayuri/Yuka/Ranma conversation. I made it short and sweet, more intent on the Akane/Ranma confrontation. Not much divergence yet, though more fluff! Let me know what you think!

**Riniko22**: Thank you for your review - you're right on all counts. Those are exactly the reasons why she chose Genma. He's not bothered about hurting her, she can use him to explain her skills and knowledge and she'll toughen up. And her mind knows the Saotome style but her body is not used to the more aerial style of fighting yet - plus this way she can explain her knowledge of it. And as you read, Genma is looking for something more private. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the fluff in this chapter! Please leave me another review!

**Wingman0**: Thank you for your review. You're right, he did notice and I did work on it as you probably read in this chapter! We're still in the beginning of the arc, unfortunately, but it's developing, if a bit slowly. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**sam261**: Oh you charmer, you! Thank you for your review and especially for your first ever review! Yay! Go me! If you are looking for awesome Ranma stories, look up MZephyr and pursemonger, both write fabulous stories!

I'm glad you're enjoying this story so much and I currently am not planning on abandoning it. Got lots of ideas - too many, probably… I do hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd be very pleased to see another review from you!

**mrhawkprime**: Hi! Thank you for your review. I'm afraid it won't be quite that easy for your couple, though thank you, as always, for your suggestions. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**linkgold64**: Thank you for your review. Huh, maybe you should get in touch with pursemonger, she's always encouraging some more shampoo beatings as well… not that I'm adverse to it but unfortunately I'll need Akane's skill levels to improve a lot more before that happens *sigh* Shame! Hope you like this chapter!

**Bluezapple**: Yay! thank you for your review. I'm glad you're enjoying this story. Hope you loved this chapter as well!

**BobV**: Thank you for both your reviews! Not sure if you'll still think she's going slowly after this chapter, but I think it's still reasonably-ish. Akane will remember, at some as yet undetermined point in the future - most probably through reiteration - but not just now, no. Yay, I'm glad you enjoy my approach to a more mature Akane and her responses to their normal insults. I've got an idea for the moxibustion thing, but I can tell you that she won't be able to shape up quickly enough to be a match for Happosai just yet. It won't take years for her to get up to Shampoo's level - she is incredibly skilled. But it will take some time. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! As always, please review again! Thanks!

**Ixde**: Wow! Thank you very much for your review and the compliments *blush*! Keep it up! *lol* No, seriously, I'm glad you're enjoying this one so far. I hope I continue living up to your expectations. Do let me know what you think of this chapter!

**Jilly**: Thank you for your review! I did have most of this chapter written by 3rd June but unfortunately the hospital wouldn't release me so I had no time to finish or upload it (mean bastards!). Anyway, thanks for the compliment, I'm glad you're enjoying it, please keep reviewing!

**rage98**: Thank you very much for your review. Hope you're still enjoying the story with this latest chapter - let me know your thoughts!

**mia**: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you're enjoying it. Please keep reviewing.

**Lavinia1**: Yay, I'm glad you're enjoying it and so drawn into it, that's the best compliment an author could ask for. Thank you for your review. I am glad you love my more mature Akane and her behaviour. I hope you enjoyed the fluffyness of this chapter! Leave me another review please and let me know what you think!

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

**Chapter2**:

**KaikiH: **Thanks for your review - I do hope you enjoyed chapter three too and now this latest one. Repetition is not a bad thing, it lets me know what all the different people like or dislike about my stories and that in turn makes them better. I do like your description of Akane 'having had her cake and wanting more'. Brilliant. Yes, she's not actually had intercourse with Ranma but certainly been a lot more intimate.

Thanks for your viewpoint on the gender-specific pronouns. My beta picks me up on that all the time - I agree with you and her. Changing from he to she gets rather confusing.

*lol* thank you very much! Now that I've got a plaster though and six weeks of nothingness, I should hopefully be able to whip up some more chapters (though the elevating it thing is getting rather difficult).

She's not always had a potty mouth, don't worry. But this Akane has lived on the road, by herself, travelling cross-country. It stands to reason that she'd lose her inhibitions. A pretty woman who talks articulately and properly is going to have a hard life. She picked up some swear words and no one to stop her from using them :)

**AerynRallas**: Thanks again for your review. I'm afraid it's too confusing, Ranma is still a 'he' after all in his mind. I'll try to clarify it a bit more, where possible, but just assume that once he's been splashed with cold water he's female until I decide to grant him a kettle of hot water (or boiling if he's been naughty). By the way, is Aeryn from the Farscape series?

**Flameraven1**: Yay! Glad you enjoyed my time jump! I'm rubbish at making up attacks so it's the same attacks as before in Ranma, except that Akane knows all the ones he knows. The only one she'd be capable of performing immediately would be Ryoga's/Ranma's ki attack based on despair or confidence and the Hiryuu Shoten Ha. I do hope this latest chapter clarified your other queries.

**caia-chan**: thanks for your review! I'm glad you're enjoying it and my Akane! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well and thanks for your well wishes!

**Linkgold64**: Thank you for your review and encouragement. I'm glad you think it wasn't all upsetting but also had some humour! Glad you're loving it, hopefully you'll think the same of this chapter!

**Janissa**: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I hope the next chapters cleared up any confusion, but if not: this is not anger management problem so much. Shampoo is well on her way to doing what she'd done before - killing the man she loved. The future version she could sort of understand because she'd lost just as much that day, realised how badly she'd gone wrong and repented. This Shampoo is trying her best to make Akane angry, to rub herself all over Ranma and claim him as hers. All Akane sees is the woman who married the man she loved and then killed him; she can't forgive that. But she will try to redirect the other girl, obviously, from the path she's currently on. Shampoo may be childish but still a very real threat to the health and well being of the man she loves, so unfortunately I can't see Akane treating her as a mere annoyance rather than a rival. Sorry :) Hope you're still enjoying the story though!

**Wingman0**: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it. As always, please review again!

**BlooTaco**: Yay, glad you remembered to log in and thanks for your review. I hope you enjoyed Chapter three as well?! This chapter had much more fluffiness, so hopefully that cheered you up!

**Compucles**: Impressive, go you! Yep, waterproof soap arc. Thanks for your review! I'm glad you loved the wake up with Ranma and Akane's confusion over the entire situation.

**Pursemonger**: Love your comments, as always! They tend to make me chuckle :) Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

**The Keeper of Worlds**: Thanks for your review, glad you're enjoying the story.

~~~~~~~~~~##~~~~~~~~~~

**Chapter1**:

**Linkgold64**: Thank you, thank you, thank you *bow* I'm glad it moved you to tears and thanks for the compliments!

**Jasonjkay**: Thank you for your review. I do hope you enjoyed the subsequent chapters as well but simply haven't found time to review. Yay, you at least won't be disappointed by her waking up in the soap arc not at the very beginning! Changes will be slow in coming, unfortunately, for the moment.

**BobV**: Thank you for your review. I'm glad you liked it and I was going for cruelty, to be honest, with his death. More Drama, the better… Thanks for your approval and your comments on her death and her dealing with Shampoo and Cologne. It was hard to decide how I wanted her to act and react. Nearly moxibustion arc - more like soap arc, but you've already figured that one out.

**Janissa**: Thank you for your review. To me, Mousse and Shampoo make a good couple. I mean, for some reason she's remained friends with him since childhood, helped him and took care of him when he was injured in the fight against Ranma. There are definitely feelings there. And, let's be honest, what girl doesn't feel flattered when there's a guy heads over heels in love with you but even when given the chance to have you his willing slave prefers you with your own mind even if that means you're not with him. It's sweet. But hey-ho, like you said. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions! I do hope you're continuing to enjoy this story nevertheless…

**Caia-chan**: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you liked Akane. I think I've vaguely heard or read the summary of the story you're mentioning but I can't quite place it… hmmm… Anyway, thanks! It'll be a while before she'll deal with the mummy. Patience :)

**Megatyrant**: Thank you for your review. What a shame though, it looks as though I was unable to keep your interest in the story. If you're still reading, please do leave me another review!

**Wingman0**: Thank you for your review. And you can thank my beta reader, pursemonger, for the lack of grammar or spelling mistakes - she's fantastic. And quick! Thanks for the thumbs up!

**ownson**: Hi! Thanks for your review! Are you still reading the fanfic? You're normally reviewing lots. Hope I haven't offended you or stopped your interest in the story in one way or another! I do like my more mature Akane who had to deal with life the hard way. Thanks again. Hope to hear from you again!

**Flameraven1**: Thank you for your review. *lol* That is funny - I wasn't aware of that. Hey, like they say, great minds think alike.

Perfect analysis, she has the knowledge but not the skills and her behaviour doesn't match. Hopefully I've refrained from havin a too clingy Akane and well, you'll read the rest. Ukyo won't really turn up until the Moxibustion arc, I'm afraid. At least not for any length of time.

**Armichi**: Hey! Thanks for your review. I'm glad I interested you though it looks as though I lost you with my characterization in the future chapters. If you're still reading, let me know what it is you're upset by! Cheers!

**Riniko22: **Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thanks for your review. My beta reader, PurseMonger, is solely responsible for the lack of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes!

**PurseMonger:** Yo! Compliments from my reviewers for the lack of grammar and spelling mistakes! You Rock! And thanks for your review!

**The Keeper of Worlds**: *blush* Thank you very much for your compliments and your review! I'm glad I exceeded your expectations, that's always a brilliant compliment!

**rancheesan**: YAY! Thank you very much for all the compliments! *blush* I'm not letting it die, I do hope you enjoyed the subsequent chapters just as much. Please leave me another review if you can!

**Compucles**: Thanks for your review. Aye, I do apologise. I've got a faible for prolongued blabbering on rather than cutting it short. Sorry! And thanks for pointing out the mistakes!


End file.
